Passfield White Paper

The Passfield White Paper, issued October 20, 1930, by colonial secretary Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb), was a formal statement of British policy in Palestine, which previously had been set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. The new statement resulted from the Hope Simpson Commission's investigation into the deeper causes of the 1929 Palestine riots, that initially started over access to the Western Wall. The white paper limited official Jewish immigration to a much greater degree.

The paper's tone was decidedly anti-Zionist since several of its institutions were severely criticized, including the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor) and the Jewish Agency, which both promoted Jewish employment of only Jewish labor, thereby supporting the ejection of Palestinians from purchased land, most who previously worked under a tenant farming system. Like the Hope Simpson Report, the Passfield White Paper found this Zionist policy damaging to the economic development of the Arab population. It concluded that Jewish immigration to Palestine was taking land from the Arab fellahs; sales of land to Jewish settlers should in future be restricted, and Arab unemployment levels should be a factor in considering permitted levels of Jewish immigration to Palestine. Furthermore, a legislative council should be formed which would represent the (Arab) majority of its population. In support of the supposed shortage of land in Palestine, Passfield's wife Beatrice Webb claimed that there was "no room to swing a cat" there.^[1]

Zionists claimed it backtracked from what they felt were commitments in the Balfour Declaration and, if implemented, would limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. Contrary to these claims, the White Paper states that the development of a Jewish National Home in Palestine is a consideration, which would enjoy continued support, but it was not central to mandate governance. The paper states that the British intend to fulfill their mandate obligations to both Palestinian Arabs and Jews, and they would resolve any conflicts that might surface as a result of their respective needs.

Las organizaciones sionistas de todo el mundo emprendieron una enérgica campaña contra el documento. En Gran Bretaña, esto llevó al primer ministro británico, Ramsay MacDonald , a aclarar el Libro Blanco ante la Cámara de los Comunes británica y en una carta a Chaim Weizmann en 1931, conocida como la carta de MacDonald .

La Carta MacDonald tenía como objetivo apaciguar a los sionistas y perturbar lo menos posible a los palestinos. Cuando muchos sionistas interpretaron la carta como una retirada del Libro Blanco, los palestinos la denominaron la «carta negra». Esto a pesar de que el Primer Ministro declaró en el Parlamento el 11 de febrero de 1931 que estaba «muy reacio a otorgarle a la carta el mismo estatus que al documento dominante», es decir, el Libro Blanco de Passfield. La propia carta también afirmaba que su objetivo era hacer justicia a los «sectores no judíos de la comunidad». ^{[ 2 ]} Al confirmar que la política del Mandato Británico de Palestina era seguir apoyando la inmigración judía, la Carta, en efecto, anuló algunas de las implicaciones del Libro Blanco y facilitó el aumento de la inmigración durante el auge del antisemitismo en Europa en la década de 1930. ^{[ 3 ]}

• Comisión Peel , 1937

• Hyamson, Albert Montefiore , Palestina: Una política . Methuen, 1942.
• Shapira, Anita (2014). Ben-Gurion: Padre del Israel moderno. New Haven y Londres: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300180459.
• Biblioteca Virtual Judía: Libro Blanco de Passfield