Figure 1.--These Jewish orphans managed to get into Palestine. Their parents had been murdered by the NAZIs. They are part of a group of 500 children and youth who arrived in Haifa, Palestine from British internment camps on Cyprus. The British allowed them in under the legal immigration quota. The pohotograph is dated August 21, 1947.

Jewish immigration to Palestine was fairly limited (1920s). This was the case until the until the NAZIs began to become a major factor in Germ politics (1932) and then seize power (1933). As a result, the number of Jews desiring to escape Germany rapidly eclated. In response the British sharply cut back on the number of Jews who could emmigrate. The persecuted Hews were so desperate that they tried to enter Palestine illegally. The Jews preferred the term clandestine. Thus from 1935 we have legl and illegal immigration. Unlike other countries, the pesecuted Jews had allies in Palestine that were prepared and in some cases get them in clandestinely. The British and Arabs concocted the fiction of 'absorbability'. But what proved important was the numbers. The Jews in Palestine would not only have the Aran=bs, but the professional and well-armed armies of he Front-Line Arab states.

Aliyah Aleph

Aliyah Aleph or Aliyah 'A' is the limited Jewish immigration permitted by British authorities into Mandatory Palestine (1934-48). Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Jewish immigration to Palestine increased after World War I (1924-26), but then leveled off. The primary factors were anti-Jewish economic legislation in Poland (which had a large Jewish poplation) and rstrictive immigration quotas adopted by the U.S. Congress. (This was restrictions on immigration in general not speifically on Jewish immigration.) The rise of the NAZIs in Germany led to immigration increasing again, reaching a record 66,000 (1935). The British were afraid that this level of immigration would disturb the Arabs and lead to public disorder. The British inforned the Jewish Agency that less than one-third of the quota requested would be approved in 1936. And even during the Holocaust and War, the numbr of immigrants were far below the 1935 peak. The British concerned about secrity and the NAZI threat acceeded to Arab demands by announcing in their 1939 White Paper that an independent Arab state would be created within 10 years, and that Jewish immigration was to be limited to only 75,000 pople for the next 5 years, after which it would be terminated. It also forbade land sales to Jews in 95 percent of the territory of Palestine. Even these draconian limitations were unaccptable to the Grand Mufti who had established control of the Palestinian community led The Arabs, nevertheless, rejected the proposal. In contrast, the British place no controls on Arab immigration. The Hope Simpson Commission investigating the 1929 Arab riots found that the British practice of ignoring Arab immigration from Egypt, Transjordan and Syria was displacing potential Jewish immigrants. The Jewish Agency could openly work with the legal immigrant and assimilate them into the (the Yishuv), the Palestinian Jewish community. The subsequent Peel Commission reported in 1937 that the “shortfall of land is, we consider, due less to the amount of land acquired by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population.” [Palestine Royal Commission Report, p. 242.] Even after the British learned of the NAZI mass slaughter of Jews, they contunue to structly limmit Jewish immigration.

Aliyah Bet

Aliyah Bet (עלייה ב'‎) or 'Aliyah 'B' was the code name for Jewish to Mandatory Palestine between (1934-48). Bet is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Modern Israeli authors commonly use the term 'Ha'pala'. The British established significant limits on Jewish immigration, especially in the British White Paper of 1939. The full term is Aliya Bilty Legalit (עלייה בלתי-לגאלית ) or illegal immigration. Several Jewish organizations worked make immigration beyond the established British quotas possible. As NAZI persecution of Jews intensified, Palestinian grops understood the urgency to gt Jews oit of Germany. Jews in other countries also began to be targeted. Many of those active in the effort preferred to use the term 'clandestine' rather than illegal. There were two destincr stages to the effort. The first was the effort to help Jews escape NAZI persecution and genocide (1934-42). During this stage several organizations (including Revisionists) organizd the effort. The second stage is called Brich shifted to an effort to find homes for Jewish survivors of the NAZI genocide (Sh'erit ha-Pletah). Jews were among the millions of displaced persons (DPs) populating the refugee camps of occupied Germany. Jews were the most diffuclt to relocated. Most no longer had homes or familes to which they return. And in the East, espcially Polnd, mny did not want them to return. After World War II, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet (Institute for Aliyah B), a part of the Haganah oversaw the effort. Some 100,000 Jews attempted to enter Palestine in violation of the British immigration quotas. There were 142 voyages by 120 ships. More than half were stopped by Royal Navy patrols. The Royal Navy committed eight ships on station off Palestine. Other Royal Navy ships were ordered to track 'suspicious' vessels. Most of the intercepted Jewish immigrants were detained in internment camps set up in Cyprus (Karaolos near Famagusta, Nicosia, Dhekelia, and Xylotymbou). The British unlike Crete were able to hold on to Cyprus throughout the War. Some of the detainees were held at the Atlit detention camp in Palestine. A few were sent to Mauritius. The British at the peak of this effort some 50,000 Jews in these camps. More than 1,600 are belived to have drowned at sea. Only a few thousand of the detainees managed to enter Palestine before Israel declared its indepndence. The success of Aliyah Bet was modest if the metric is the number of Jews who managed to enter Palestine. It proved, however, to be a glvanizing issue in helping to unite the Jews in Palestine (the Yishuv) and for the Holocaust-survivor refugees in Europe (Sh'erit ha-Pletah) and to promte a new Israeli identity. .

Created: 2:14 AM 11/4/2017
Last updated: 2:14 AM 11/4/2017