The MacDonald Letter of 13 February 1931, also known as the Black Letter, was a letter from British prime minister
Ramsay MacDonald to
Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( he, חיים עזריאל ויצמן ', russian: Хаим Евзорович Вейцман, ''Khaim Evzorovich Veytsman''; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born biochemist, Zionist leader and Israe ...
, prominent Zionist leader, in response to the
Passfield White Paper
The Passfield White Paper, issued October 20, 1930, by colonial secretary Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb), was a formal statement of British policy in Palestine, which previously had been set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. The new statement r ...
. The White Paper limited Jewish immigration to Palestine and Jewish purchase of Arab land. Zionist organizations worldwide mounted a vigorous campaign against the document, which culminated in MacDonald's "clarification" of the White Paper, reaffirming British support for the continuation of Jewish immigration and land purchase in Palestine. It was considered a withdrawal of the Passfield White Paper, despite the fact that Prime Minister said in parliament on 11 February 1931 that he was "very unwilling to give the letter the same status as the dominating document" i.e. the Passfield White Paper. The letter itself also claimed the importance of justice for "non-Jewish sections of the community".
In secret testimony to the
Peel Commission
The Peel Commission, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry, headed by Lord Peel, appointed in 1936 to investigate the causes of unrest in Mandatory Palestine, which was administered by Gre ...
, Weizmann acknowledged that he was sent a draft of the letter in advance so that he could make necessary amendments.
Arabs renounced the letter as the "Black Letter", primarily upset because Jewish immigration continued with increasing numbers, the purchase of land by Jews continued without restrictions, and the steps taken to protect Arab tenant farmers from being removed from their land were ineffective. By confirming that the policy of the
Palestine Mandate was to continue to support Jewish immigration, the letter in effect negated the implications of the White Paper and facilitated increasing immigration during the growth of
anti-semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
in Europe in the 1930s.
[Shapira (2014), p. 87.]
External links
The letter in full from Hansard
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
Hymanson, Albert M. (1942) ''
Palestine: A Policy''. London: Methuene.
* Shapira, Anita (2014). ''Ben-Gurion – Father of Modern Israel.'' New Haven and London: Yale University Press. .
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Pre-1948 Zionist documents
White papers
1931 documents
Mandatory Palestine
Letters (message)
Ramsay MacDonald