soc.history.war.world-war-ii

On Feb 25, 6:11 pm, Rich Rostrom wrote:

> The Mandate for Palestine issued by the League
> incorporated the Declaration, with the very important
> addition that
>
> nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil
> and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities
> in Palestine...
>
> which made the goals of the Declaration very
> problematic, as the "existing non-Jewish communities"
> objected vigorously to the "Jewish homeland" project.

Having someone buy the land next door to you (as was done by Jews
arriving in that area--buying the land from absentee Arab landowners)
does not prejudice your civil and religious rights. You're perfectly
free to go on doing as you did. As we know, there were Jews living
there all along.


> British actions under the Mandate were torn between
> these incompatible directives.

They don't seem incompatible to me, as described above.

Yes, the existing residents will have to accept that newcomers are
different than themselves. But that was going all on over the world
after the war, including in the United States.