ABSTRACT
With the outbreak of the Second World War the British White Paper anti-immigration policy2 was considered insufficient as the legal basis for the British and Palestine governments’ anti-immigration policies. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities these regulations were, therefore, complemented by the Defence Regulations (Prohibition of Entry) 1940 and augmented in Supplement No. 2 to the Palestine Gazette, Extraordinary No. 1062 of 9 December 1940 (9 December 1940 was the date the IJI of the SS Atlantic were deported to Mauritius). This Extraordinary Supplement to the Palestine Gazette authorised the High Commissioner for Palestine to order the deportation to any of the areas under the control of His Majesty, of any prohibited immigrant who transgressed the entry regulations or who attempted to enter Palestine. It laid down that anybody so detained should be deemed to be in lawful custody, provided, and the Zionists made much of this provision, that his name or the detainees’ names appeared on a list to be attached to the High Commissioner’s order. This document was fiercely attacked by the Jewish Agency as contradicting, in their opinion, both the letter and spirit of paragraph 4 of the League of Nation’s Mandate. The legal status of the deported immigrants was far from clear; in most sections of the Extraordinary Supplement they were called ‘detainees’ (‘detainees’ are held before a legal decision has been made), in other sections they were called ‘internees’ (‘internees’ are held after a legal decision on their detention).
