ABSTRACT
The authorities in Jaffa permitted only 200 of the olim to disembark, forcing the rest to remain on board until the ship reached Haifa. Although the authorities were following standard procedure, the incident indicates the problematic relation of the British administration to the rescue aliya program. Before 1933, aliya was halted twice: by High Commissioner Herbert Samuel in 1921, and by the Passfield White Paper in 1930. Both bans resulted from a British effort to appease the Arabs after riots. The Mapai leadership adopted a succession of positions that spanned the spectrum of attitudes toward the British, with Berl Katznelson the most Anglophobic and Shertok the most Anglophilic. On the issue of Zionist-Arab relations, Jabotinsky remained similarly unequivocal. He claimed, to the apparent chagrin of the Commission members, that the lack of intercommunal peace was Britain’s fault.
