ABSTRACT
The question of the status and rights of the Arab minority in a future Jewish State began seriously to preoccupy the Jewish Agency Executive in mid-1938. 1 As opposed to the issues of boundaries and Jerusalem, where the Jewish Agency demanded modifications in the Royal Commission's Plan, the Agency Executive initially believed that it could sit back and rely on the Commission's recommendations regarding population transfer. 2 Once it finally became clear that there were no prospects that the British government would implement forced transfer, that voluntary transfer had no realistic chance, and that the Committee for Population Transfer had come to a dead end, the Executive was left with no recourse. It had to come to grips with formulating policy regarding the status and rights of the Arab minority that would remain in its area. Pursuant to the demands of the Partition Commission in mid-1938, 3 a demand originating in the Commission's terms of reference, 4 the Executive was also obligated to present its position regarding the status and rights of the sizeable Arab minority slated to remain within the area of the Jewish State. Given the assumption that New Jerusalem would be incorporated within the boundaries of the Jewish State, the size of the Arab minority approached nearly half the size of the future Jewish State's population. 5
