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the British authorities had dissolved the Supreme Islamic Council, removed its president, dissolved the Higher Arab Committee, exiled its members to the Seychelles, abolished the national committees in Palestinian towns, and thrown hundreds of men, young men, judges, and scholars into detention camps and prisons on charges of responsibility for the revolt and terrorism. Although the Arabs in their revolt did not destroy government property or its official offices, except for trains and railways to cut the army’s communications, and although their revolt was honorable and limited to fighting military personnel rather than civilians, they were subjected to the harshest torture and punishment. Their cities and villages were bombed, their supplies destroyed, their money looted, heavy fines imposed on them, and other acts of extreme cruelty and injustice carried out that cannot be described. In addition, one hundred and forty-eight fighters were executed by hanging. Death sentences were issued against Arabs and carried out for the slightest reasons: anyone found with even a single bullet or an empty cartridge case in his possession or home would be sentenced to death and executed. The dead and wounded among the fighters and civilians, men, women, and children, numbered in the tens of thousands.

We now turn to a summary of Jewish political and media activity during the war and Britain’s and America’s response to it, including Britain’s repudiation of the policy set out in the White Paper.

In 1941, the Zionist leader Weizmann offered Britain the assistance of Jewish capital and the cooperation of world Jewry in winning the war, on condition that Britain agree to give the Jews free rein in Palestine, Transjordan, and the southern regions of Lebanon, including the Litani River.

But the circumstances of the war at that time were not favorable to Britain, so it could not take such a step.

To support the idea of establishing a Jewish state, the Jews began holding demonstrations, while their leaders and organizations held meetings and conferences. In January 1942, Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, announced that Jews could not give up a handspan of the land of Palestine, from the mountain peaks to the depths of the sea. He later announced that Zionism had drawn up its plan and policy on the basis that Palestine must become a Jewish state.

Then, in December 1942, Jewish leaders held a conference in Jerusalem at which they announced their rejection of the partition plan and demanded a Jewish state in Palestine.