London Conference of 1939

The remaining members of the HNC were either already out of the country or, like Haj Amin Husseini, went into hiding and then into exile in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut.

The commission, chaired by Sir John Woodhead, was boycotted by the Palestinians, whose leaders had been deported or were in exile and who had no wish to discuss partition.

Reporting in 1938, the Commission rejected the Peel plan, primarily on the grounds that it could not be implemented without a massive forced transfer of Palestinians, an option that the British government had already ruled out.

[8] With dissent from some of its members, it instead recommended a plan that would leave the Galilee under British mandate but emphasised serious problems with it that included a lack of financial self-sufficiency for the proposed Palestinian state.

[8] The British government accompanied the publication of the Woodhead Report by a statement of policy rejecting partition as impracticable for "political, administrative and financial difficulties".

To that end the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, invited a mixed Palestinian and Zionist delegation to London to discuss what form of government should be established.

If World War II occurred in Europe, it would be essential for Britain to maintain control over Egypt, Iraq and Palestine.

[11] Some Palestinian leaders welcomed the proposed conference but it soon became clear that there was not going to be any alternative to dealing with the disbanded Higher National Committee (HNC) and former Mufti of Jerusalem Amin Husseini.

This was part of an agreement made in London following informal meetings between MacDonald and Musa Alami to ensure a Palestinian Arab presence at the conference.

[12] The deportees were released on 19 December and allowed to travel to Cairo and then, with Jamal Husseini, to Beirut where a new Higher National Committee was established.

[13] The five Arab regimes invited were the Kingdoms of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and the Emirate of Transjordan - all within the British sphere of influence.

[17][18] The Arab Palestinian delegation was led by Jamal Husseini and consisted of Awni Abd al-Hadi, Yacoub Al Ghussein, Husayin al-Khalidi, Alfred Roch and Musa Alami.

Despite pressure from the other delegates, the Arab Palestinian group refused to include any representatives from the moderate National Defence Party (NDP) of Raghib al-Nashashibi.

The goal of the meeting was to either reach an agreement or, if that was not possible, ensure that the British government understood the wishes of both sides so it could act accordingly.

The first task the conference set itself was to establish the meaning of a series of letters, written in Arabic in 1915 to 1916, between the British government and the governor of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali.

[24] The committee concluded that the Arab perspective had been downplayed and that as of 1918, the British government had no authority to ignore the views of the existing inhabitants in what would become Palestine.

[25] However, the two sides failed to agree on the exact meaning of some of the territorial references, particularly whether or not "portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Hamah, Homs and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and must on that account be excepted from the proposed delimitation" included Palestine.

[26] One option discussed with both delegations was the idea of a Jewish canton as part of a Greater Syria, but the proposal was quickly rejected by both sides.

[27] On 6 March, a member of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry flew from Cairo to Beirut to try to get Amin Husseini to approve concessions that were considered by the delegation.

[28] On 17 March, after he had warned the delegation a day earlier, MacDonald read a statement outlining the British proposals and closed the conference.

However, since it claimed to represent all Jews, it included some non-Zionists such as Sholem Asch and Lord Melchett as well as the president of Agudat Yisrael.

Weizmann's presentation of the Jewish Agency position reduced to four points: The delegation was willing to accept the partition of the country, as recommended by the Peel Commission, under protest.

The meeting also had MacDonald announce the outlines of the British policy: after a transition period, Palestine would become an independent state allied to Britain, and the Jewish minority would have protected status.

On 27 February, the Mapai newspaper in Palestine, Davar, published a cable from Ben Gurion: "There is a scheme afoot to liquidate the National Home and turn us over to the rule of gang leaders".

On the same day, Zionist attacks took place through a co-ordinated series of bombs across Palestine murdering 38 Palestinians, motivated by Ben-Gurion.