What were the British limitations on Jewish immigration to the Palestinian Mandate & when did they apply?

[raharris1973]

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.

 

[WolfBear]

This article might interest you, Rob:

British Restrictions on Jewish Immigration to Palestine

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

 

[The Unicorn]

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).

I'm not sure this is correct. Not if you count all sources of migration, where did you get this from?

Jewish immigration to Palestine spiked up after Hitler took power in Germany.

Not really, it was more like a steady increase in immigration from 1930 to 1939 or 1937 (it's not clear how successful the British attempts to limit the numbers in 1937 were) as ani-semetism and various flavors of fascism increased in central and eastern Europe.

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?

The quotas from 1923 to 1937 were (officially at least) based on the ability of the Jewish community to absorb the immigrants and anyone who could demonstrate they could make a living on their own (rich young idiots, established professionals, students coming to study, etc...) could get in with no quota. The remaining quota was tiny (so the number of prospective immigrants always exceeded the quota) but the quota only covered a small portion of the immigration.

Another way to ask this question is, “over each year of the mandate, how many immigration applications were denied?”

None
The British mandate didn't deal with individual immigrants under the quota system, they decided how many Jewish immigrants were going to be allowed that year, handed that number of certificates to the Jewish Agency who in turn distributed them based on political considerations to the various Jewish organizations helping Jews from various countries immigrate, those then distributed them to people they thought deserved them (again mostly based on politics). With so many different groups involved all of which were lying for political reasons about the number of prospective immigrants I don't think it's possible to tell how many were denied immigration in any given year.

Palestine was far from the 1st choice for emigrating Jews during the mandate years.

Not for prosperous non-zionist jews in US or western Europe, no. It was however for the Zionists and the religiously motivated immigrants from North Africa, Eastern Europe and the middle east.

Numbers are very difficult ti figure out, partially because of the constant illegal immigration but mostly because both at the time and after the founding of Israel the different jewish political factions had a vested interest in lying about the numbers

 

[WolfBear]

@The Unicorn If you don't mind me asking, are you yourself Israeli?

 

[The Unicorn]

@The Unicorn If you don't mind me asking, are you yourself Israeli?

Yup.

 

[WolfBear]

Yup.

What countries did your ancestors move to Israel from?

 

[The Unicorn]

What countries did your ancestors move to Israel from?

We moved from the US.

 

[WolfBear]

We moved from the US.

What about before moving to the US?

 

[The Unicorn]

What about before moving to the US?

Eastern and central europe mostly - in late 19th/start of the 20th century.

 

[WolfBear]

Eastern and central europe mostly - in late 19th/start of the 20th century.

Do you know the specific countries?

FWIW, my own Jewish ancestors came from western and central Ukraine.

 

[The Unicorn]

Do you know the specific countries?

Only for my paternal grandmother - she had three birth certificates stating she was born in Russia, Poland and IIRC Romania

 

[raharris1973]

Notwithstanding what Unicorn said about lying and illegal immigration, and other suspect or half true aspects of the link wolf bear provided in the second post, the immigration table https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-immigrantion-to-palestine-1919-1941shows an ‘elasticity’ in legal migration figures in interwar Palestine of between a low of 1,806 in 1919 and a high of 66,472 in 1935.

I wonder if different outcomes in post WWI Europe might boost this immigration quite a lot-
For example-
1) White victory in the Russian Civil war leads to a right wing government pursuing anti Semitic policies but which also permits free emigration and enjoys it when Jews do the emigrating
2) major polish victory in Soviet Polish war leads to Polish intermarium confederation extending at least East to the Dnieper and Odessa thus including most of the Pale, and permitting free emigration while having internal instability and national insurgencies, some of which target Jews.

3) Conversely, Soviets partially win Polish war, taking up to the Curzon line, stop there, and get an armistice. They also force population exchanges, expelling Poles west of border. This leads to reconception of Poland along purer ethnonationalist lines in line with Dmowski with even less of a place for Jews and more anti Semitic, boosts Jewish emigration from rump Poland greatly.

 

[WolfBear]

I wonder if different outcomes in post WWI Europe might boost this immigration quite a lot-
For example-
1) White victory in the Russian Civil war leads to a right wing government pursuing anti Semitic policies but which also permits free emigration and enjoys it when Jews do the emigrating
2) major polish victory in Soviet Polish war leads to Polish intermarium confederation extending at least East to the Dnieper and Odessa thus including most of the Pale, and permitting free emigration while having internal instability and national insurgencies, some of which target Jews.

3) Conversely, Soviets partially win Polish war, taking up to the Curzon line, stop there, and get an armistice. They also force population exchanges, expelling Poles west of border. This leads to reconception of Poland along purer ethnonationalist lines in line with Dmowski with even less of a place for Jews and more anti Semitic, boosts Jewish emigration from rump Poland greatly.

In all of these scenarios, Britain might significantly restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine earlier, perhaps even much earlier.

 

[raharris1973]

In all of these scenarios, Britain might significantly restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine earlier, perhaps even much earlier.

Well that depends on what Britain’s severest restrictions (those of of 1939 white paper) were in reaction to.

Were they automatic, thermostatic reactions to the numbers of Jews arrived by 1939, and the irritation and revolt of local Palestinian Arabs?

There had been some Arab rioting in the early 20s leading to som restrictions, and riots in 1929, but OTL that didn’t stop the year over year upward trend.

Or did Britain restrict immigration only when Palestinian Arab unrest became internationalized to other parts of the Arab world like Egypt, Iraq, Aden- which didn’t happen till the 30s?

Or, Britain decided on the White Paper restrictions only after the Arab revolt, internationalization, and by spring 1939, anticipating a war with Germany and possibly Italy was likely? Adding that up, Britain decided it couldn’t afford Middle East trouble urging a war so it had to say ‘no’ to the Zionist lobby.

But in a scenario of heavy immigration in the 1920s, it may cause local Arab unrest. That would cause some British officials to call for restrictions, but pro Zionists in parliament, media and society would push back. Without a world war on the horizon, leaving immigration lines to Palestine open may leave the Cabinet members with fewer daily complaints and headaches than closing them during a humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe.

 

[The Unicorn]

In all of these scenarios, Britain might significantly restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine earlier, perhaps even much earlier.

That may or may not happen depending on the exact identity of the British governor and the way the various political issues in the local Arab and Jewish communities.

For example

2) major polish victory in Soviet Polish war leads to Polish intermarium confederation extending at least East to the Dnieper and Odessa thus including most of the Pale, and permitting free emigration while having internal instability and national insurgencies, some of which target Jews.

Could lead to a significant increase in the non-zionist Jewish immigration, which would mean they'd not be competing with the Arab farmers and poor workers so the situation might be better, on the other hand they would be competing with the Arab merchants and craftsmen so things could be even worse.

I'd need to look some stuff up on the details, but from memory the Arab concentrated antagonism to Jewish settlements started from
1)The religious/political leaders in Jordan fearing their influence and convincing the poor farmers that the Jews were there to take their land.
2)The Zionists competing with the poor workers for jobs
3)The screwy land ownership situation under the British mandate, which got worse over time.

Change one of those and it might be possible to keep to relatively positive relationship that early Jewish settlements enjoyed, with only the occasional cheating and attacks rather than the outright war we had historically in the 1930s.