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situation of the German Jews.” 7
Palestinian Christian churches favored restraining
Jewish immigration due to a desire to appease the Arabs in their congregations, to avert
any “decline in the importance of Christian influence and institutions in the Holy Land”
and to continue “missionary work” and other projects. They believed partition would
interfere with their proselytizing and other Christian Church activities. The Anglican
Bishop of Jerusalem and other clerics believed that the Mandate could not accommodate
further Jewish immigration as a means of solving the refugee crisis and blamed the entry
of Jews during 1935 as the cause of the Arab Revolt. Since that time, the Bishop
claimed, “Palestine had known no peace.” 8
The Roman Catholic Church was opposed both to the Balfour Declaration of 1917
and any Jewish immigration into the Holy Land. Archbishop Amleto Giovanni
Cicognani, a special representative of Pope Pius XI to Washington, informed Myron C.
Taylor (June 22, 1943), during his role of special American Emissary to the Vatican, that
while it was historically true that the land had at one time been occupied by Jews, there
were no historical precedents for the resettlement of a people to an area they had departed
1,900 years earlier. If the goal was the creation of a “Hebrew Home” then there were
7 Daily Telegraph, October 31, 1933 cited in Andrew Sharf, The British Press and Jews under Nazi Rule
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964), 183.
8 Consul General in Jerusalem George Wadsworth to Hull, October 26, 1938, 867.01/1295, FRUS
vol.11, Britain, The Commonwealth, Europe, Near East and Africa, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1955), 969-974. The dispatch included an “open letter” published in The Times,
September 22, 1938, which was signed by Christian clergy in Jerusalem calling for protection of the
Churches’ interests in Palestine as well opposition to partition and continued Jewish immigration. There
arguments centered upon four basic themes: 1. Palestine is too small of an area to “solve the European
Jewish problem” and any solution should not be at the “expense” of Christians or the “Arabs of Palestine.”
2. The Jewish (and Zionist) “claim to Palestine on the basis of prophecy is declared in the New Testament
to have been abrogated.” 3. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 made conflicting promises and was too
“vague in its form of expression.” 4. Palestine is the seat of three major religions; not just Jewish and
Muslim. This dispatch also included demographic information regarding the Christian population of
Palestine and made reference to fears of anti-Christian repercussions should Jewish immigration increase or
partition occur.
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