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with a specified level of immigration. After returning, the technical committee submitted a report to the British government containing an extensive study and pointing to the many difficulties confronting any partition plan.

Following this, the British government issued a statement announcing that it had abandoned the partition plan and would seek another solution that would enable it to fulfill its obligations toward both Arabs and Jews. It said that it intended to invite the Arab governments and representatives of the Arabs and Jews in Palestine to a conference in London to reach a suitable solution.

The British government’s announcement that it had abandoned partition was a great victory for the Palestinian people in their struggle and a sign that the revolt had achieved one of its aims, the elimination of partition. The Palestinian struggle also achieved another of its aims: making the Palestine cause a general Arab and Islamic cause. During this period, the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, made a secret visit to Palestine, where he studied the situation closely with the British authorities. When he returned to London, he delivered a speech about his journey in which he said: “Palestine is the most difficult country in the world.” After referring to the difficulties of the high commissioner and the commander-in-chief, he said: “Putting an end to the revolt is not easy, and Britain’s position is difficult because of its dual obligations to Arabs and Jews.” He then delivered a statement in the House of Commons, asking members not to be carried away by emotion and not to ignore the facts on the ground in Palestine. He referred to the Arabs’ rejection of the Balfour Declaration and their rejection of the Mandate from the beginning, and acknowledged that what was happening in Palestine was now a broad, organized revolt driven by sincere patriotism. He said that if the British people were in the place of the Palestinian people, they would sacrifice everything they could for the sake of their threatened freedom. Finally, the minister indicated that the British government intended to hold talks with the Arabs and Jews separately, then bring them together to reconcile them if possible, and otherwise adopt the solution it considered appropriate.

The Palestinian revolt was then at the height of its strength and momentum. One Jewish leader, Simansky, described the condition of the Jews as “a fear of death.” He said that three Jewish parties in Palestine had demanded a halt to immigration because of unemployment, the suffocating crisis, and immigrants’ fear of coming to Palestine, to the point that one thousand immigration certificates issued by the authorities to wealthy Jews found no one willing to accept them.