Jews in Palestine and the British During World War 2 Part VI

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

World War II started on September 1, 1939, initiated by Adolf Hitler.  In only 10 months, he conquered all of Europe.  

Then He went to North Africa.  His goal was to cut off the supply lines of Great Britain by capturing the Suez Canal.  From Suez, it would be a short leap to Palestine, where he could exterminate the Jews, just as he was murdering them in Europe.  

From Palestine, he also could easily swallow up the oil fields of the Middle East.  

The Arabs were eager for a Nazi victory.  some of the Arab leaders gave only quiet support to the German cause.  Others worked actively for Hitler.  One spent the war in Berlin, broadcasting to the Arab people the order to "RISE UP AGAINST BRITAIN AND HER ALLIES."

                                               

     Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat December 25, 1918-October 6, 1981 

The British arrested those who were pro-Nazi when they could.  One of those sent to prison was Anwar Sadat, a man destined to become a key figure in the history of the Middle East. 

The Striking arm of the Haganah, set up in May 1941, The Palmach Unit, here some of 300 pictures as yet unidentified.  They worked until May 1948 underground, and became part of IDF upon statehood.  

Nazis were also setting up bases in Syria.  the British wanted these bases destroyed, but could not spare soldiers for the task.  They turned to the Yishuv for a solution.  A special Jewish strike force was created by the Haganah.  The new group was called  THE PALMACH.  It was a very efficient commando unit, and soon the enemy bases in Syria were in ruins.                                    

Still, the Germans in North Africa marched east, closer and closer to the vital Suez Canal.  The British took their stand at El Alamein, just 70 miles west of Alexandria, Egypt, and only 200 miles from the Suez Canal.  The British army, joined by many Jews of the Yishuv, held its ground.  the Nazi advance was at last turned back.  The tide of war began to turn in favor of the Allies.  The Suez Canal---and the Yishuv, were safe.

Now that Britain no longer needed the help of the Jews of Palestine, it promptly extended a hand of friendship to the Arabs.  The pro-Nazi Arabs were treated as allies.  The Jews who had helped defend the Suez Canal were treated as enemies.  Though the British needed solders, they said they would accept volunteers from Palestine only if Jews and Arabs enlisted in equal numbers.  Very few Arabs were interested in fighting the Nazis, while thousands of Palestinian Jews were eager to help destroy Hitler.  By insisting on being "even-handed," the British kept many Jews from fighting to save their fellow Jews in Europe.

It was September 1944 before an official Jewish army unit was permitted.  the Jewish Brigade fought valiantly, was one of the 1st units to make contact with survivors of the Nazi death camps, and played an important role in rescuing and caring for Jewish survivors.

                                             

Moshe Dayan, (May 20, 1915-October 16, 1981) a founder of the Palmach, later one of Israel's great leaders. 

Britain's constantly shifting attitudes had a deep effect on a man who one day became one of Israel's great military leaders.  The man was Moshe Dayan.  He was the 1st child born in Palestine's 1st communal kibbutzim, Degania Alef.  From his early years, he took part in the Yishuv's defense, and joined the Haganah. When WWII erupted, the British were afraid that the Haganah would fight the Arabs while the British were fighting Germany.  Dayan and 42 other Haganah officers were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Then the British realized they needed a Jewish task force to attack Syria, so they released the Haganah men.                          

Dayan was brave.  In one battle, he alone captured 12 enemy soldiers.  In another shootout, he lost his eye, and always wore a black patch over it afterwards.  Britain took back the weapons loaned to the Jews when they no longer needed their help.  Needing them against the Arab attacks, the Palmach broke into the British arsenal and stole them back.  The British retaliated by outlawing the Palmach and the Haganah.  Dayan and the Jewish Defense Force continued their operations, but now trained and organized in secret.   The British had ignored the very reason they were in Palestine in the 1st place:  to assist the JEWS in creating their Jewish Homeland.   In direct defiance of the British authorities, the Haganah continued to smuggle refugees into Palestine.  A 1939 poster showed the names and faces of 43 Jewish fighters who had been captured and sent to British jails.  

                                                   

The Haganah brought Jews from Europe to Palestine. The British White Paper of 1939 had announced that Jewish immigration to Palestine would be cut to 15,000 a year.  They kept to this number even knowng that the Nazis were exterminating more than 15,000 Jews every few days.  The Haganah smuggled Jews in.  By May 14, 1948, more than 100,000 Jews had been saved "illegally" from death. 

The whole world was closed to the Jews in their greatest time of need.  They couldn't survive in Europe.  A few entered Palestine--legally and illegally.  A handful was admitted to USA.  Some found refuge in isolated places like Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. For 6 million, there was no escape.  Only the Jews in the USA were safe-as long as the country was untouched.             

   In Hamburg, Jews boarded the SS St. Louis, headed for Palestine.

                                            

Tragedy came to 2 ships with Jewish refugees escaping death.  The SS St. Louis crossed the Atlantic just before the war, and was refused by the USA, Canada and all of Latin America.  It had to return to Hamburg, Germany and its passengers were murdered by the Nazis.  On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US - but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis. By early 1939, the Nazis had closed most of Germany's borders and many countries had imposed quotas limiting the number of Jewish refugees they would allow in.

Cuba was seen as a temporary transit point to get to America and officials at the Cuban embassy in Berlin were offering visas for about $200 or $300 each - $3,000 to $5,000 (£1,800 to £3,000) at today's prices.

                                                  

The 2nd refugee ship, the Struma, old and rickety, escaped from Rumania in 1941.  The British would not permit it to land in Palestine.  It was kept in a Turkish harbor for 2 months, people hungry and panicky.  It was towed out to sea  where it sank.  More than 700 men, women, and children drowned because no one would give these Jews a corner of land on which to live.            

Born in Budapest on July 17, 1921, to a wealthy, distinguished, and assimilated Hungarian Jewish family, Hannah Szenes escaped the anti-Semitism she experienced in Hungary and joined a kibbutz at Caesarea in Palestine.

                                         

The war dragged on.  Hannah Senesch left her family in Hungary at the age of 18 and settled in Palestine.  WWII broke out a few months later.  She wanted to return to Europe and rescue her mother and others.  She joined a group of 32 young Jews who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe.  Several stole some Hungarian uniforms.  They took charge of arrested Jews in Hungary after landing.  Hanna was betrayed and arrested by the Nazis. Szenes was arrested at the Hungarian border by Hungarian gendarmes. She was imprisoned and tortured, but refused to reveal details of her mission. She died by a firing squad at age 23.  Her poem tells it all;  Blessed Is the Match, which became known and loved throughout Israel.  

“Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.”

                                                                         

― Hannah Senesh

Resource:

A Young Person's History of Israel, 2nd edition, by David Bamberger

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmach

https://www.amazon.com/Blessed-Match-Death-Hannah-Senesh/dp/B003LB2AFI

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/blessed-is-the-match/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Szenes

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hannah-senesh

How Jews Defended Themselves and What Caused Animosity Towards the British

Jewish immigrant in 1880s-1900s  farming in Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Members of Hashomer, a Jewish security organization dedicated to protecting pioneering Zionist settlements, pose with their rifles October 1, 1909
Land had first been guarded for the new Jewish pioneers by the Circassians, hotheaded Arab mercenaries from neighboring villages who were being paid to defend their homes.  David Ben Gurion insisted that Jewish land must be guarded by Jewish watchmen.  Others didn't want to do that because it could cause Circassian resentment and bring on more attacks and then they would join the others in attacking! (p. 103 in Genesis 48)

Jewish Shomrim or watchmen had been active since the 1870s for early Jewish settlers.
They rode horseback dressed as Arabs armed with gun, sword and spear, and learned Bedouin law and Arab customs, and were respected among the Arabs, especially after
one brave Watchman at the first Jewish colony of Petah Tikvah speared an invading Arab sheikh on his lance and then rode to the enemy camp to deliver the corpse.

They found out that it was only when they didn't defend themselves that the Arabs were
encouraged to attack again and again.  Ben Gurion noticed that sometimes the Circassians even divided the loot with the attackers.

 HA-SHOMER (The Watchman)  were made up of Jewish workers or laborers in Palestine  and commanded by Israel Shochat.

 They were a defense group for the aliyah of Eastern European Jews that had started coming from Russia and other places in 1882 and onwards.  Since they were being attacked by wandering Bedouin Arabs, they needed protection.  Ha-Shomer also worked on getting employment for their people (KIBBUSH AVODAH).  They helped to establish settlements of men who wanted to labor during World War I.  After the British won the war, they collaborated with the Upper Galilee police force and directed self-defense activities during the riots of 1920-1921.  They were replaced by the Haganah in defense.
                                                                                 
In 1920, we were finally making progress in taking steps to return to the land of our fathers in Palestine through the Europeans who were fighting WWI against the Ottoman Empire of which Palestine was part.  In 1918, the end of the war, the British were given a 30 year mandate to rule the land and then turn it over to the Jews.  It didn't always go that way.  On their own, the British decided to give 80% of the land to Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia so that he could be a king.  The Jews living in Palestine were being thwarted in not receiving the backing from the Brits they had promised to give.

The Jews formed a clandestine organization for Jewish self-defense in Palestine called HAGANAH (Defense),  in Hebrew.  They had replaced Ha-Shomer in 1920 and lasted until 1948.  It's members were then transferred to TZEVA HAGANAH LE-ISRAEL.  Finally,  after Israel was born  on May 14, 1948,  they  finally turned into the Israel Defense Force (IDF).  
                                                                         

1920 map shows the land mandated for Palestine
amounted to 46,512.1826 Sq miles or 120.466 Sq. Km. 
Israel finally got 8,000 Sq miles .Britain gave 80%  to Abdullah to make Jordan.. 

Defense was a formidable problem for the Jews in Palestine.
 Israel had long land frontiers that made her particularly vulnerable to assault-either by direct attack or by infiltration.  Sabotage and murder originating mainly from the Gaza Strip and from the TransJordan area were a constant nuisance, and didn't stop despite Israel reprisal raids.  Against direct attack, immense efforts were made to build up and equip the armed forces of TZEVA HAGANAH LE-ISRAEL.
                                                                   

Haganah Logo

Haganah was created because the group realized their inadequacy of the protection that was being given to the Jewish population under the British administration.  Jews  had the conscious determination to entrust security to a popular volunteer organization.  The Haganah combined an illegal organization with individual Jewish participation in the government's security forces and even had certain legal formations.

Much effort was put into strengthening the Haganah following the 1929 Arab riots that were so bad in Jerusalem.  The rioting resulted in a British policy of appeasement of the Arabs!  In 1931, the Haganah split and the minority, the right-wing groups, formed a separate organization, reuniting with the Haganah in 1936 with some elements remaining outside the group.  They were the ones who formed the nucleus of the IRGUN TZEVAI LEUMI, known as (ETZEL).
                                                                             

Haganah 1942

Haganah continued to be strengthened during the 1936-1939 disturbances by the establishment of the Supernumerary Police Force (Noterim) which numbered 20,000 in 1939.  This force was recruited by the Haganah command and operated as far as possible under its instructions.  During this period, the "Special Field Companies" were raised by Yitzhak Sadeh and the "Night Squads" established by Charles Orde Wingate, a British soldier who was at the riots of 1936-1939 and had organized formations of Jewish volunteers, to defeat the Arab terrorist activity.  He was a keen Bible student as well, and remained an ardent supporter of Zionism to the end of his brilliant military career.
                                                                         

  Haganah also were involved with settlement operations such as "Stockade and Tower". Haganah even set up their own secret plant for manufacturing equipment.    They also organized illegal immigrations to Palestine of Jews, for the Brits were allowing Arabs in while keeping Jews out, and their mandate was to help create a Jewish Homeland, not an Arab one.
                                                                           

October 16, 1886 in Plonsk, Poland- December 1, 1973 Israel
David Ben Gurion, 5'0" tall,  immigrated in 1906 to Palestine and worked as a field laborer and watchman.
Then in 1910 he moved to Jerusalem and became involved in politics.  He studied law in
Constantinople.  After being expelled by the Turks, he went to the USA, returning in 1918.  
First Prime Minister of Israel and Minister of Defense 1948-1953 and
Third Prime Minister of Israel 1955-1963

David Ben-Gurion ( Israel's 1st Prime Minister who read the proclamation of the establishment of the State of Israel in Tel Aviv over the radio),  was then the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive.  He ensured that the Haganah should operate as the security arm of the executive and act according to  its  instructions.
                                                                                 

During WWII, the Haganah had its members enroll in Jewish units within the British army and 30,000 men and women volunteered, something unknown to many people today.  In 1941, military commando units called the PALMAH  were set up, at first in collaboration with the British, but with the object of obtaining their withdrawal of the 1939 WHITE PAPER (see explanation end of article) that was putting an end to Jewish immigration!

By June 1946 after the war, the British administration undertook an extensive counter-operation which did not bring success to their objectives.  At this time, the Haganah didn't struggle against the British.  From the end of 1947, the Haganah concentrated on defense against the mounting Arab attacks.

Though other underground groups had been formed out of the Haganah, such as IRGUN TZEVAI LEUMI AND LOHAME HERUT ISRAEL, their relations with Haganah were strained at best.  However, they did cooperate from 1945-1946 and from 1947 to 1948.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
                                                                           

Menahem Begin (1913-1992) Born in Poland,
joined Betar as a teen, immigrated in 1942 with the Polish army and became commander of
IRGUN TZEVAI LEUMI.
1977 6th Prime Minister of Israel 

 The group, IRGUN TZEVAI LEUMI or ETZEL was formed by a Palestinian Jewish underground organization, founded in 1937 by members of other groups such as BETAR (youth organization of the Zionist Revisionist party) and also the REVISIONISTS in the Haganah.  They were different in that their aim was retaliation against Arab attacks, but after the 1939 WHITE PAPER was published, its target became the British authorities in Palestine because Haganah wasn't tough enough with them.  They attacked British administrative personnel and executed acts of sabotage.  They were tough enough to be outlawed by the Mandatory British government.  The Jewish Agency dissociated itself from their activities.  Irgun declared a truce on the outbreak of WWII in 1939 when its leader, David Raziel, was killed in Iraq in 1941 on a British mission.  He was replaced in 1943 by MENAHEM BEGIN (future Prime Minister).
                                                                           

In 1944, IRGUN renewed their anti-British activities because of the continuing ban on Jewish immigration, so they organized "illegal immigration" from Europe where they so badly needed to escape from certain death.  The cold-hearted British arrested and exiled many of  their members in response, determined not to let anymore Jews in the "Jewish Homeland!"  By 1946 Irgun numbered membership at 3,000 to 5,000.  After November 1947, the Irgun carried out a number of attacks on Arab villages that were attacking Jews.  They also announced their entry into the Haganah when statehood was proclaimed.  By September1948, their military framework was completely dismantled,  first continuing with a lot of tension with the new government.  Irgun turned politically to the Herut party.
                                                                             

Yitzhak Shamir b: 1915
Mossad (Israeli Secret Service) 1955-1965
1973-Herut Party in Knesset
1983 Prime Minister after Begin

Another fighting group besides Irgun was LOHAME HERUT YISRAEL (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) also known as LEHI and known by their opponents as THE STERN GANG. 

                                                                                 

Avraham Stern, called Yair, 1907-1942, Leader of Irgun,
and formed Lehi. (Stern Group)
killed by British police at age 35 while being arrested. 

 This is the group my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, was in.  He was the Chief of Intelligence.  He told me not to call it the Stern Gang, but the Stern Group.  That's because they were founded by Avraham Stern.  They had split from IRGUN TZEVAI LEUMI in 1940, maintaining that Britain must be fought despite the WWII war effort against the Germans.  After Stern was killed, the group was led by ideologist Yisrael Scheib (Eldad).  Its tactician was Nathan Mor (Friedmann- Yellin) and its operational commander was Yitzhak Jazarnitsky (YITZHAK SHAMIR-future Prime Minister) He had joined the Irgun in 1937.
                                                                           

The Stern Group's membership was about 300.  They were the more violent of them, said to have murdered Lord Mayne, the British Minister in the Middle East in 1944, and of Count Bernadotte in 1948, before the announcement of statehood.  They thought that statehood would not come about unless they carried this out, as Bernadotte was the lynchpin, they felt.  The group was not needed anymore after statehood..  One member became a member, most likely being Shamir,  of the 1st Knesset from 1949 to 1951 and then the group disbanded.
                                                                             

Stanley Goldfoot with wife and 2 daughters in Tel Aviv
b: May 2, 1914 South Africa d: November 24, 2006 Jerusalem, Israel

From all my searches and talks with Stanley, he was not involved in the decision about Count Bernadotte.  That was up to the 3 leaders of the group.  He did wind up in Acco held as prisoner for some time when holding reporter credentials.  He's the man who has written the famous, "Letter to the World " that has also been put to video as well.  He went on to found 'The Times of Israel "of which "A Letter to the World." was in the 1st issue.

A year later, the PALMACH (Strike Forces)  split from Haganah on May 15, 1941. They were active from 1941 to 1948.  It was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. Its aim was to defend the Palestinian Jewish community against two potential threats. First,  the occupation of Palestine by the Axis in the event of their victory over the British in North Africa. Second, , if the British army were to retreat from Palestine,  Jewish settlements might come under attack from the Arab population. 
                                                                     

     
"Week of July 1, 1946 in Time Magazine
TIME's London bureau reports that "Britain is on the verge of an Anglo-Jewish war in Palestine." Angered by Britain's refusal to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine, the Zionist underground Haganah army blew up several bridges into Syria and Trans-Jordan, warning the British that it was prepared to fight if necessary.
By the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War it consisted of over 2,000 men and women in 3  fighting brigades and auxiliary aerial, naval and intelligence units. With the creation of Israel's army, the 3  Palmach Brigades were disbanded. This and political reasons compelled many of the senior Palmach officers to resign in 1950.    Its members formed the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces high command for many years, and were prominent in Israeli politics, literature and culture.                                                            

       
I believe it was the 1960 movie, Exodus, that centered on an illegal ship with Paul Newman in the main role.  They also had scenes of being taken into Lehi with Sal Mineo.   "The film is based on events surrounding the ship Exodus in Cyprus in 1947 and then on events in Palestine during the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, the film was based on the 1958 novel,  Exodus by Leon Uris. Nurse Katherine "Kitty" Fremont (Eva Marie Saint) is an American volunteer at the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews -Holocaust survivors - are being held by the British, who will not let them go to Palestine. They anxiously wait for the day they will be liberated. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a Haganah rebel who had been a captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, obtains a cargo ship and smuggles 611 Jewish inmates out of the camp for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine before being discovered by military authorities. 
                                                                      

When the British find out that the refugees are in a ship in the harbor of Famagusta, they blockade it. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies, and Ari threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees. The British relent and allow the Exodus safe passage.  If you can't find the film, at least read the book.  I don't think the Brits were ever that nice in real life.  
                                                                                           

WHITE PAPER OF 1939: "Statement of Palestine policy submitted by the British colonial secretary Malcolm MacDonald after the failure of conversations by the British with Jewish and Arab delegations.  Declared the British intention of setting up after 10 years an independent Palestinian state in which Jews and Arabs would participate in the government proportionately to their numbers.  75,000 Jeews would be allowed to enter over 5 years to 1944 after which Jewish immigration would be dependent on Arab agreement.  Land sales to Jews would be restricted or forbidden in the majority of the country.  The document aroused the fierce opposition of the Zionist movement but guided British policy in ensuing years."  It must be remembered that this was a radical turn-around in what was decided upon in 1918 when the British accepted the Mandate from the League of Nations where all countries decided that Jews should have their Jewish Homeland out of Palestine.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt
http://www.timesofisrael.com/yitzhak-shamir-why-we-killed-lord-moyne/
Genesis 1948-the First Arab-Israeli War, by Dan Kurzman-1970, 750 pages*****
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Israel_Defense_Forces
https://www.google.com/search?q=Haganah,+pictures&biw=977&bih=590&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3hMHlk4HSAhVDgbwKHcXvBPgQ7AkINA&dpr=1#imgrc=tv78Dn42gEW1gM:

Broken Promise of Allowing Jews Into Palestine-Kept Out During Holocaust

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

                                                                           Brits in WWI Palestine

afterwards to receive mandate for the land from League of Nations

Great Britain's way of handling Arabs during World War I was to appease them.  Here they were given the mandate by the League of Nations (The UN's first try at solving problems of the world-parent group of the United Nations) to assist the Jews in creating their Jewish Homeland

So what did they do?  They placed restrictions on Jewish immigration but at the same time allowed Arabs to enter the country freely.  One of the biggest appeasers was Herbert Louis Samuel (1870-1963), a British statesman and the 1st Jew to be a member of a British cabinet from 1909.  He held office in the Liberal government from 1905 to 1916, and then in the national government from 1931 to 1932.  He wrote a memo to the Cabinet in 1914 concerning a British trust for the Jewish Home.  This was to influence the Balfour Declaration to be written, which was a good thing.  

British officer 1917

British Soldier 1917

During World War I of 1914-1917, the Jewish population, of which never completely left the land, did not receive many immigrants.  In fact, it declined due to the war, famine it caused and disease running rampant and expulsion. By 1915, about 83,000 Jews lived in Palestine among 590,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs.  By 1919 had 1,806 Jewish immigrants  enter Palestine.  Throughout the 20s, most immigrants were from Eastern Europe.
1920 had  8,223   "          "                 "      "
1921 had  8,294    "          "                 "      "

Haj Amin al-Husseini
sherif of Jerusalem
Grand Mufti

                                                       

Abdullah, later to be King of Transjordan
'Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan (Arabic: عبد الله الأول بن الحسين‎‎,Abd Allāh ibn al-Husayn, February 1882 – 20 July 1951), born in Mecca,Hejaz, Ottoman Empire (in modern-day Saudi Arabia), was the second of three sons of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah (d. 1886).  Abdullah led a force of 5,000 tribesmen but they did not have the weapons or discipline for a full attack. Instead he laid siege to town."

In 1921,   Winston Churchill, then the Colonial Secretary,  rewarded Abdullah   by installing him as emir.  It has been thought that he was the son of Husseini, but wasn't.  His surname is Hussein, and was from Saudi Arabia.  Husseini was from Palestine, at least for a few generations.   Then Churchill severed nearly 4/5 of Palestine, some 35,000 sq. miles, to create Transjordan.  That was promised land to be the Jewish Homeland!  Did he forget the words of the mandate?  It had stated that "the Administration of Palestine...shall encourage, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency...close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not acquired for public purposes."

By the 1922 census, the Jewish population was 84,000 while the Arabs grew to 643,000.  The Arab population continued to grow exponentially while the Jews stagnated-according to British plan.  Arabs still practiced multiple marriage partners in having the limit of 4 wives each of desired.  Jews didn't.
1923 had 8,175  Jewish immigrants enter Palestine.

In 1924, Jewish immigration to Palestine increased  to 13,855 because of so much anti-Jewish economic legislation in Poland, and Washington's imposition of restrictive quotas of Jews entering the USA.

By 1925, 34,386 Jewish immigrants entered Palestine.  Jews of the Pale of Settlement and Russia were suffering from pogroms.  They needed a country to take in refugees, and Palestine should have been available to them.                                                  

Haj  Amin al- Husseini  From as early as 1920 he actively opposed Zionism, and was implicated as a leader of the 1920 Nebi Musa riots. Al-Husseini was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment but was pardoned by the British. In 1921 the British High Commissioner appointed him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a position he used to promote Islam while rallying a non-confessional Arab nationalism against Zionism.  During the period 1921-36 he was considered an important ally by the British Mandatory authorities."

                                                                     

The Brits only allowed in 1926, 13,855.  By 1927 only 3,034 were allowed in.  By 1928, 2,178; and by 1929, a terrible year of the USA stock-market crash, 5,249 were able to enter. It was also a terrible year for the Jews as Husseini, the leader in Jerusalem of Arabs created an attack on Jews.  "In 1936, the Arab Higher Committee, led by Grand Mufti Husseini, launched a campaign of anti-Jewish violence across Palestine. Accompanied by a six-month-long strike, the campaign became known as "The Arab Revolt." As the British increasingly became targets of Arab violence, they used massive force to suppress the aggression. The revolt was finally quashed in 1939. The resulting White Paper of 1939 reversed British commitment to a Jewish State (the raison d'etre of the Mandate) and drastically limited Jewish immigration into Palestine."  The ironic fact is that  a Jew of Great Britain, none other than Herbert Samuel, had  selected Husseini for his position, showing his equality in dealing with everyone, he thought.  Little did he know.  
                                                                         

Police rounding up Jews in Baden-Baden, Germany. 

From 1930 onwards, conditions were getting worse for Jews in Germany.  The 30s had immigrants escape to Palestine from Nazi Germany.  This year only 4,944 were allowed in.  1931 allowed 4,075.  1932 saw 12,533 come in; and 1933 had a surge of 37,337; 1934 had 45,267 and 1935 had 66,472.  That was the top number.  The influx of Jewish settlers coming in unnerved Herbert Samuels so placed restrictions on Jewish immigration in the interests of the present population and the ability of the land to absorb a large amount of people.  this was when less than a million were living there and it now supports 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs, both citizens of Israel.
                                                                               

By 1936, Jews were receiving more and more restrictions on them in Germany, and couldn't leave easily for Palestine.  29,595 were able to get to Palestine.  1937 saw that cut down to only 10,629.
                                                                           

Kristallnacht, night of broken glass of Jewish shops 1938

 1938 allowed 14,675 to leave for Palestine.  1939, the last year allowed to leave when my uncle,  Werner Oster, was one who left in the last month of May, was one who left for the USA while 31,195 others entered Palestine.  1940 allowed 10,643 to enter Palestine but 1941 had only 4,592 enter.
                                                                       

During World War II, the gates of Palestine were closed.  This stranded hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe, most of whom became victims of Hitler's final Solution.  Even after the war, the Brits refused to allow the survivors of the Holocaust to find sanctuary in Palestine.  On June 6, 1946, President Truman asked the British to relieve the suffering of the Jews confined to displaced persons camps in Europe by accepting 100,000 Jewish immigrants.  Ernest Bevin, their Foreign Minister, replied sarcastically the the USA wanted displaced Jews to immigrate to Palestine "BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TOO MANY OF THEM IN NEW YORK!   Today's Arab refugees do not understand how lucky they are to have been taken into countries -and so easily; hardly any vetting is going on at all.  
                                                                         

The Exodus 1947-carried 4,554 Jewish refugees to Palestine organized by Haganah and was seized by the British in the Mediterranean after a battle where 3 Jews were killed.  They were all Holocaust survivors.  The old ship was returned to France but refused to land there, so they had to disembark at hamburg forcefully by British soldiers.  

Therefore, from 1919 to May 14, 1948, Israel's birth which was immediately after the Brits' mandate was up and had left, 385,066 Jewish immigrants had entered Palestine from America, Europe and Oceania which was 89.6% of the immigrants.  44,809 had entered from Asia and Africa which was 10.4%.  22,283 entered but whose origin was not known.  All this totaled 452,168 immigrants by the time Israel was created.  Altogether, they had 650,000 people, the same number that Moses had on the Exodus.  6,000,000 Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust.
                                                                       

Palmach,  Palestine Jews found cooperation from Brits with this group

During the years leading up to 1948, the Jews of Palestine (Yishuv) created their own political institutions and political parties, created a democratically elected Representative Assembly and a national Council.  They had a Jewish Agency that represented all Jews in the world as well as the Yishuv through the British authorities and the League of Nations.  Defense organization such as the Hagana and the Stern Group of which my cousin was the Chief of Intelligence were formed.  They formed educational systems and bodies that dealt with economic and social affairs were born.  This made the transition into an independent State much easier in 1948.  Everything was in place by the Jews living there.

By 1949, the British had allotted 87,500 acres of the 187,500 acres of cultivable land to Arabs and only 4,250 acres to the Jews.

Finally the Peel Commission realized and stated that "the heavy immigration from 1933 to 1936 showed that the Jews have been able to enlarge the absorptive capacity of the  country for Jews."The Peel Commission had been appointed by the British government to look into the 1936 Arab riots against Jews in Palestine.  At the time, the land of Palestine was understood by the commission at the time of the Balfour Declaration to be the whole of historic Palestine including Transjordan.  The Balfour Declaration of 1917 said, "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people., and will USE THEIR BEST ENDEAVORS TO FACILITATE THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THIS OBJECT, IT BEING CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD THAT NOTHING SHALL BE DONE WHICH MAY PREJUDICE THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF EXISTING NON-JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN PALESTINE OR THE RIGHTS AND POLITICAL STATUS ENJOYED BY JEWS IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY.  In other words, other countries couldn't expel Jews from where they were already living because of the creation of a Jewish Homeland.

Resource: Facts About Israel by division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb
 http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=1691
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/mufti.html