United Nations Partition Plan For Palestine - Earlier Proposals For Partition

Earlier Proposals For Partition

In 1937, the Peel Commission had proposed a Palestine divided into a small Jewish state (about 15%), a much larger Arab state, and an international zone. The Arab leadership rejected the plan, while the Jewish Agency rejected the plan's borders and established its own committees on borders and population transfer, drawing up alternative proposals. These proposals contained provisions for the relocation of Arab population to areas outside the borders of the new Jewish state, modeled on the population exchange between Greece and Turkey; they were also rejected by the Arab side.

The British Woodhead Commission considered several additional plans for partition. In 1938 the British government issued a policy statement declaring that "the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the problem is impracticable". Representatives of Arabs and Jews were invited to London for the St. James Conference, which proved unsuccessful.

The MacDonald White Paper of May 1939 declared that it was "not part of policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State" and sought to eliminate Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Jewish Agency hoped to persuade the British to restore Jewish immigration rights, and cooperated with the British in the war against Fascism. Aliyah Bet was organized to spirit Jews out of Nazi controlled Europe, despite the British prohibitions. The White Paper also led to the formation of Lehi, a small Jewish terrorist organization which opposed the British, and fought on the side of the Axis, throughout the war.