
Everything Jewish - 10 Minutes at a Time
The British White Paper of 1939 in 10 Minutes
Issued by the British government in May 1939 , just months before the outbreak of World War II , the White Paper of 1939 dramatically changed the course of Zionist history. Reversing decades of British support for a Jewish national home, it sharply limited Jewish immigration to Palestine at the very moment that European Jews were desperately seeking refuge from Nazi persecution. The policy also restricted Jewish land purchases and envisioned an independent Palestinian state governed jointly by Arabs and Jews within ten years. In this episode, we'll explore why Britain abandoned its earlier commitments under the Balfour Declaration, how the White Paper affected Jewish efforts to escape the Holocaust, why it provoked fierce opposition from the Zionist movement, and how it helped set the stage for the Jewish revolt against the British and the eventual creation of the State of Israel.

