How Tory Britain deceived the Palestinians

6 years ago monty 0

One month after Britain’s declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, Zionist MP and Cabinet Minister, Herbert Samuel (Pictured right) met Chaim Weizmann, who was to become the President of the World Zionist Organisation & later the first President of Israel.   According to Weizmann’s memoirs, Samuel was already an avid believer in Zionism and believed that Weizmann’s demands were too modest.[9]

On 15 Dec 2014 T E Lawrence (who had mapped the Negev Desert for the British army) was sent to the Arab Bureau Intelligence Unit in Cairo to commence the betrayal of Sharif Hussein, Emir of Mecca  who as a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed could in theory claim litigate leadership of all Islam & by extension all Arab speaking people.  The deal offered was to take up Arms against the Turkish Empire, in exchange for control of all Arabic lands, including Palestine after WW1.  Lawrence & Hussein played a vital role in the defeat of the Turks, but Hussein had been betrayed & got nothing. 

On 15 January 1915, Weizmann and Samuel discussed the draft memorandum,  (link to memorandum; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Future_of_Palestine) at 11 Downing Street with David Lloyd George.[12] Less than two weeks later, Samuel forwarded the memorandum to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and Foreign Minister Edward Grey for approval, before circulating the memorandum The Future of Palestine to the full cabinet.  This is an extract from that memorandum.:

“A feeling is spreading with great rapidity that now, at last, some advance may be made, in some way, towards the fulfilment of the hope and desire, held with unshakable tenacity for eighteen hundred years, for the restoration of the Jews to the land to which they are attached by ties almost as ancient as history itself.

Yet it is felt that the time is not ripe for the establishment there of an independent, autonomous Jewish State. Such increase of population as there has been in Palestine in recent years has been composed, indeed, mostly of Jewish immigrants; the new Jewish agricultural colonies already number about 15,000 souls; in Jerusalem itself two-thirds of the inhabitants are Jews; but in the country, as a whole, they still probably do not number more than about one-sixth of the population.

If the attempt were made to place the 400,000 or 500,000 Mahommedans of Arab race under a Government which rested upon the support of 90,000 or 100,000 Jewish inhabitants, there can be no assurance that such a Government, even if established by the authority of the Powers, would be able to command obedience. The dream of a Jewish State, prosperous, progressive, and the home of a brilliant civilisation, might vanish in a series of squalid conflicts with the Arab population. And even if a State so constituted did succeed in avoiding or repressing internal disorder, it is doubtful whether it would be strong enough to protect itself from external aggression from the turbulent elements around it. To attempt to realise the aspiration of a Jewish State one century too soon might throw back its actual realisation from many centuries more.

I am assured that the solution of the problem of Palestine which would be much the most welcome to the leaders and supporters of the Zionist movement throughout the world would be the annexation of the country to the British Empire. I believe that the solution would be cordially welcome also to the greater number of Jews who have not hitherto been interested in the Zionist movement. It is hoped that under British rule facilities would be given to Jewish organisations to purchase land, to found colonies, to establish educational and religious institutions, and to spend usefully the funds that would be freely contributed for promoting the economic development of the country. It is hoped also that Jewish immigration, carefully regulated, would be given preference so that in course of time the Jewish people, grown into a majority and settled in the land, may be conceded such degree of self-government as the conditions of that day may justify.”

Samuel then “went silent” in public on Palestine, and almost a year later on 16 December 1915 Tory MP Sir Mark Sykes was invited to brief the Cabinet on dividing Palestine between friends, where he drew his infamous “line in the sand”, thus concealing Samuel’s plan.

After WW1 arch Zionist Herbert Samuel was appointed to the position of High Commissioner for Palestine in 1920, even before the Council of the League of Nations approved a British mandate for Palestine. Nonetheless, the British military government withdrew to Cairo in preparation for the expected British Mandate, which was finally granted two years later by the League of Nations.

Samuel served as High Commissioner until 1925.  He was the first & only Zionist to govern all of Palestine. A 5 star Hotel in Jerusalem is dedicated to his services to Zionism; ( https://bit.ly/2lNl0v5)

Back in Britain in 1925, Samuel published a report in March 1926, recommending a reorganisation of the coal  industry but rejecting the suggestion of nationalisation. His report also recommended the government subsidy to the coal mines be withdrawn and the miners’ wages reduced. The 1926 General Strike soon followed.