Editing Malcolm MacDonald (section)

=== MacDonald White Paper ===
In 1939, MacDonald oversaw and introduced the so-called [[White Paper of 1939|MacDonald White Paper]] which aimed at the creation of a unified state in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], with controls on Jewish immigration. The White Paper argued that since over 450,000 Jews had been settled in the Mandate, the terms of the [[Balfour Declaration]] had now been met and that an independent Jewish state should not be established. When the White Paper was debated in Parliament on 22–23 May 1939, many politicians objected to its central recommendations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kessler |first=Oren |title=Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict |date=2023 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-4880-8 |location=Lanham MD |pages=212–218}}</ref> Churchill noted, '"After the period of five years no further Jewish immigration will be permitted unless the Arabs of Palestine are prepared to acquiesce in it". Now, there is the breach; there is the violation of the pledge; there is the abandonment of the Balfour Declaration; there is the end of the vision, of the hope, of the dream.'<ref>{{cite Hansard|title=Mr Winston Churchill|house=House of Commons|date=23 May 1939|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1939/may/23/palestine#column_2173|column=2173|speaker=Winston Churchill}}</ref> The outbreak of the [[Second World War]] suspended any further deliberations.<ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/angap04.asp Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry - Appendix IV] Palestine: Historical Background</ref><ref name="Morris2011p159">{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Benny |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGtVsBne7PgC |title=Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1998 |date=25 May 2011 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-78805-4 |page=159 |chapter=chp. 4 |quote="Capping it all, the Permanent Mandates Commission of the Council of the League of Nations rejected the White Paper as inconsistent with the terms of the Mandate".}}</ref> 

Opponents of the White Paper pointed out that Jews were suffering from oppression by the Nazi regimes in Germany and Austria but, given that most states, including the United States and Canada, did not accept Jewish refugees, had nowhere other than Palestine to which to emigrate. In a UK Parliamentary debate, [[David Lloyd George]] called the White Paper "an act of [[perfidy]]."<ref>{{cite news |date=24 May 1939 |title=White Paper |newspaper=[[Manchester Guardian]] |pages=12, 14}}</ref>

In a leader, the ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'' called it "a death sentence on tens of thousands of Central European Jews",<ref>{{cite news |date=24 May 1939 |title=A death sentence |newspaper=Manchester Guardian |page=8}}</ref> and the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] [[James Armand de Rothschild|James Rothschild]] stated during the parliamentary debate that "for the majority of the Jews who go to Palestine it is a question of migration or of physical extinction".<ref>[[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] Debates, Volume 347 column 1984</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=22 May 1939 |title=PALESTINE. (Hansard, 22 May 1939) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1939/may/22/palestine-1#column_1984 |access-date=3 November 2021 |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]}}</ref>