raharris1973
Well-known member
The British rarely, if ever, allowed unrestricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. From my limited knowledge, I’ve assembled the following “facts”:
the severest Jewish immigration restriction were emplaced late in the mandate in 1939, and were structured in a way that all sides predicted would put a Jewish majority out of demographic reach for decades into the future, in which time it was to be given representative government. (Ie, a non Jewish majority could have voted on Jewish immigration levels).
at some point in 1922 some level of restrictions were put on Jewish immigration in response to Arab riots.
nevertheless some level of Jewish immigration took place Palestine throughout the mandate period in the 1920s and 1930s.
Levels fluctuated, and in some years, possibly in the late 1920s, there was more Jewish outmigration from Palestine than migration in (this included a member of my extended family).
Jewish immigration to Palestine spiked up after Hitler took power in Germany.
I have a few questions for the group.
Does your understanding of the facts contradict this?
also, I have a very important question for context: Did the number of Jewish requests or applications for immigration to Palestine ever exceed the slots or quotas the British had available? If so, in what years did this happen?
Another way to ask this question is, “over each year of the mandate, how many immigration applications were denied?”
This is a legitimate question. One might assume there would have been excess applicants every year based on Israeli marketing of its popularity and essentiality to world Jewry, but it’s not clear this applied in the 20s and 30s. Palestine was far from the 1st choice for emigrating Jews during the mandate years.
the severest Jewish immigration restriction were emplaced late in the mandate in 1939, and were structured in a way that all sides predicted would put a Jewish majority out of demographic reach for decades into the future, in which time it was to be given representative government. (Ie, a non Jewish majority could have voted on Jewish immigration levels).
at some point in 1922 some level of restrictions were put on Jewish immigration in response to Arab riots.
nevertheless some level of Jewish immigration took place Palestine throughout the mandate period in the 1920s and 1930s.
Levels fluctuated, and in some years, possibly in the late 1920s, there was more Jewish outmigration from Palestine than migration in (this included a member of my extended family).
Jewish immigration to Palestine spiked up after Hitler took power in Germany.
I have a few questions for the group.
Does your understanding of the facts contradict this?
also, I have a very important question for context: Did the number of Jewish requests or applications for immigration to Palestine ever exceed the slots or quotas the British had available? If so, in what years did this happen?
Another way to ask this question is, “over each year of the mandate, how many immigration applications were denied?”
This is a legitimate question. One might assume there would have been excess applicants every year based on Israeli marketing of its popularity and essentiality to world Jewry, but it’s not clear this applied in the 20s and 30s. Palestine was far from the 1st choice for emigrating Jews during the mandate years.