Fresh document: Britain looked on as Zionists took Palestine
A newly declassified document has revealed how the UK government and its authorities looked on more than 60 years ago as Jewish settlers took over more and more Palestinian lands.
The document also shows how Jewish public endorsed the Zionist regime’s pro-terrorist stance vis-à-vis Palestinians and the fact that Britain knew from the early beginning of the creation of the Zionist regime, known to Palestinians as ‘Nakba Day’, that partition of the occupied territories would lead to war, in which Arabs would emerge defeated, The Guardian reported.
According to the Colonial Office papers, in the weeks leading up to the partition of Palestine in 1948, when Britain gave up its UN mandate and withdrew its forces from the territories, Jewish terrorist groups were mounting increasing attacks on UK forces and
Arab fighters.
It was while senior British officials were busy deciding how to allocate between them two Rolls-Royces and a Daimler, the document revealed.
The papers, released at the National Archives, show how in regular intelligence reports to London, British officials in al-Quds (Jerusalem) described a steady build-up of tension as Britain, the US, the United Nations and Zionists moved towards the partition of Palestine.
As early as October 1946, two years before partition, UK officials warned London that Jewish opinion would oppose partition "unless the Jewish share were so enlarged as to make the scheme wholly unacceptable to Arabs".
British officials warned the colonial secretary, George Hall: "The Jewish public … endorsed the attitude of its leaders that terrorism is a natural consequence of the general policy of His Majesty's Government", including turning away ships carrying "illegal" Jewish immigrants.
After an increase in violent attacks by the militant Zionists of the Stern group and Irgun, British officials reported later in 1946: "Arab leaders appear to be still disposed to defer active opposition so long as a chance of a political decision acceptable to Arab interests exists."
But they warned: "There is a real danger lest any further Jewish provocation may result in isolated acts of retaliation spreading inevitably to wider Arab-Jewish clashes".
A report dated October 1947 refers to Menachem Begin, commander of Irgun, stating in a press interview that "the fight against the British invader would continue until the last one left Palestine".
Begin was later elected prime minister of Israel and signed a peace treaty with Egypt's president Anwar Sadat in 1979.
By early 1948 British officials were reporting that "the Arabs have suffered a series of overwhelming defeats." They added: "Jewish victories … have reduced Arab morale to zero and, following the cowardly example of their inept leaders, they are fleeing from the mixed areas in their thousands. It is now obvious that the only hope of regaining their position lies in the regular armies of the Arab states."
Zionist regime Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948. The following day, the last remaining British troops withdrew and the first Arab-Israeli war began.
Uprooted Palestinian
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