The Promise - History Help Please!

[TheMoreItSnows]

I've been watching The Promise which I have enjoyed and feel that my woefully poor knowledge about Israel & Palestine is somewhat improved.

BUT can someone please explain to me why the Jews all headed to Palestine after the 2nd World War? I know that eventually the Jews were 'given' land by the allies and it was this land that became Israel.

But when they all went there straight after being freed from the camps (assuming that The Promise is somewhat accurate...)was this because there was already a Jewish community there and they just wanted to be amongst fellow Jews, or for another reason?

Thanks

In 1916 the then Foreign Secretary made a declaration, later confirmed by the British Cabinet that the British Government favoured allowing the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish National Homeland. The Wikipedia article gives details of what happened after that!

They didn't all head to Israel. Many went to America (my mom & grandma), Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, England, Australia, or anywhere that would have them. A few even stayed put.

These refugees, they survived the Nazis. Their families were decimated, homes, pocessions dispocsessed, lives destroyed. They were stateless reugees. After the war there were quotas to where they could go, sponsors were required to gain entry. Of course these people wanted to go to Palestine (as it was called then), to be amongst their own, to be in a place that allowed them to be themselves without fear.

Previous to WWII, Zionism alreay had a strong foothold in Israel. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration declared a homeland for the Jews in Israel. (Britain was the player as they helped kick out the Ottomans - Lawrence of Arabia...) The UN gave Britain the mandate to establish a national Jewish home in Palestine(with rights to ALL inhabitants). This mandate expired in 1948 (thus the British left), and it all kicked up. In response, the Arab countries kicked out 100,000's of Jews who fled to Israel.

(In 1947 the UN offered a partition between the Jews and Arabs for a two state solution, it was accepted by the Jews, rejected by the Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab nations.)

So, coupling the refugee crisises, and the momentum of the establishment of a Jewish homeland, Palestine was an obvious choice.

Just popped back to see if I had any responses. Thank you ladies, I shall go and read about the Balfour Declaration now.

GenX - wow so your mum and grandma were survivors of the camps? Did they get to 'choose' to go to America, did they have a sponsor there? Family or a friend? I can't begin to imagine the horror.

I knew Mumsnet would give me the answer! Consider me more knowledgable..... Thank you

No, not the camps. Due to the fact my grandparents were left leaning communists, right before the war, they fled early with friends from Poland to Russia. A sort of lucky twist of fate in history. Most of the people from their village was killed (it's the same village that the Milliband's mother came from).

My mom was born when they were on the run. My grandfather died in Russia. My grandmother supposedly got all the way to Mongolia (with my baby mother). When the war was over, my grandmother returned to her village and then to American occupied Germany. Postwar, the Germans were required to host the survivors. Hasty marriages were made amongst the survivors, families created. (A whole nother story!) My grandmother remarried, and somehow they got passage to the USA when my mother was 10. I don't know how this actually happened, I'll have to ask my mom one of these days.