Bookstore Glossary Library Links News Publications Timeline Virtual Israel Experience
Anti-Semitism Biography History Holocaust Israel Israel Education Myths & Facts Politics Religion Travel US & Israel Vital Stats Women
donate subscribe Contact About Home

Pre-State Israel: The Anglo-American Committee

(1946)

The Anglo-American Committee was formed shortly after World War II, following disclosure of the horrors of the Holocaust and the problem of refugees and displaced persons.

The committee concluded that no country other than Palestine was ready or willing to help find homes for Jews wishing to leave Europe, but Palestine alone could not solve their emigration needs. It therefore recommended that 100,000 certificates for immigration to Palestine be issued immediately and that the U.S. and British governments try to find new places for the Displaced Persons, in addition to Palestine. Future immigration to Palestine should be regulated by the Mandatory administration, and the land transfer regulations of 1940, which forbade the sale of land in certain parts of the country to Jews, should be annulled. Finally, the committee called for mutual tolerance.

The Jewish Agency accepted the committee's recommendations; the Arabs rejected them. U.S. President Harry Truman regarded them favorably, whereas British Prime Minister Clement Atlee made the provision of 100,000 immigration certificates contingent on the disarming of the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi. The British government, in fact, continued to carry out its White Paper policy.

Click HERE to read the report.


Sources: The Jewish Agency for Israel and The World Zionist Organization