PUT ARAB-PALESTINIAN CAPITOL INSIDE THE VATICAN | Open letter to Pope Francis from Bob Kunst

Posted on May 24, 2015 by ADARAPRESS

PUT PALESTINIAN CAPITOL INSIDE THE VATICAN

“In 2000, Christians made up 20% of Bethlehem and today, while you laud Abbas, committed to destroying all of Israel and his state will be ‘Jew Free’ and “Gay Free”, there are only 2% Christians in Bethlehem. This is no accident for the persecution of Christians by Abbas’s Muslims has been horrendous and you keep silent about this oppression and murder while condemning Israel. You are such a hypocrite.”

Dear Pope Francis:

By Bob Kunst

You’ve done it again, and we urge you to put all these ‘peace’ loving terrorists inside the Vatican on a permanent basis, along with the rest of the Jew-haters in the Vatican, starting with yourself.

You waved at us after visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on May 26, 2014, when we had 100 with posters demanding that you open the books on Hitler’s Pope, who gave financial and political support to Hitler and who kept quiet while Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem and the rest of the European Nazis carried out the mass murder of 7 million Jewish men, women and children who were killed in 42,500 places of this crime against humanity.

The Holocaust was the result of the blatant Jew-hating from the Vatican for 2000 years, and where Pius XII thought Jews were sub-human, Bolsheviks and Christ Killers and with his blessing made the Holocaust happen with that Catholic Hitler and his band of Catholics as well.

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We also demanded that you open your books on The Vatican Bank and how this corrupt institution took ‘gold trains’ from the teeth of the Jewish and other victims to finance the Vatican ‘rat line’, which helped the mass murderers to escape, along with the British and American forces.

Fifteen thousand Nazi war criminals went to Canada; 10,000 to the U.S.; 30,000 to Latin and Central America and 30,000 more to Argentina, where you are from and didn’t do a thing about any of it and your silence is complicit in this outrage. Have the criminals been caught for the bombing of the Jewish community center that killed 85 more Jews in Argentina, long after the Holocaust? The Perons welcomed the Nazi killers and where were you?

In addition, we demanded that you return to the Jewish people, $millions in stolen Torahs, holy books and Jewish artifacts stolen in the Holocaust, and also the Jewish Temples gates, stolen many centuries ago and all of it under the Vatican and doesn’t belong to you.

We also opposed giving the Vatican 14 properties you wanted in Israel, including the Tomb of King David, who built Jerusalem over 3000 yrs. ago and again you want control of.

We also criticized your meeting with the Mufti of Jerusalem and calling him ‘brother’, when in 2012 he called for “Killing All Jews.” His comment didn’t bother you?

We also criticized your kissing the wall built to keep out the Islamic Nazi terrorists who you visited on the afternoon of 5/26/14, and then managed to revise history once again by stating on that same day that this was like the “Warsaw Ghetto.”

Not that the Vatican cares about the truth, which would set you and the rest free, but the Warsaw Ghetto had 400,000 Jews shipped to Treblinka extermination camp and the few hundred Jews left to fight the German and Polish Nazis managed to keep them at bay for weeks and along with the Serbian anti-Nazis, who also fought against them for months, now forced Hitler into the Russian winter or we would all be speaking German.

Of course none of this matters to you on any level since the Islamic Nazis you embrace were aligned with Hitler to “Kill All Jews” and the Mufti of Jerusalem refused to allow any Jews to flee Europe to Palestine and of course before 1948 the Jews were the Palestinians.

Your purpose for visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to those lost in the Holocaust, was obviously nothing more than a publicity stunt.

We also asked for your help with Holocaust Survivors, with so many desperate and having to choose between food and medicines and also ignored by the Vatican, as much as those who participated in the slave labor of 14 millions worked to death or led to the gas chambers and the Vatican ignoring this horror and outrage as well, while preaching about peace and love and doing the dirtiest politics instead. Over 2000 German companies participated in the Holocaust and many American companies as well and all on the hook for compensation to the survivors and heirs.

We also condemned the Vaticanization of the Death Camps, which are the world’s largest Jewish cemeteries, by putting up giant crosses on the graves of Jews murdered there. At Dachau Death Camp, near Munich, the lst of the death camps, where 40,000 were murdered, the Germans still refuse to tell the world that the gas chamber worked. Meanwhile, McDonald’s hands out flyers on where to buy burgers and fries. So much for trivializing the Holocaust itself.

Then there is Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the Russians say millions of Jews were murdered and today the Poles use this extermination camp as if it were Disneyland, with banking, disco, post office, restaurants, etc. in a total disgrace and contemptible behavior to market this killing machine as a tourist promotion and attraction. Obviously, the extermination camps were put in Poland for their Jew-hating politics that the Vatican has been pushing with the Nunnery at Auschwitz with all of its Jew-hating signs I saw there in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of this camp.

I was there with permission of the government and survivor groups with my 20 ft. banner: “Purge, Extradite and Prosecute All Nazi Murderers”. Of the 4000-8000 who ran Auschwitz-Birkenau, only 50 were ever put on trial. The rest went free and Germany paid pensions to these killers, while ignoring the survivors and only throwing them a bone of 3 cents on a dollar. Only last year, Germany offered $1billion to victims of the ghettos but only went back to 1997 and ignored the struggles for 50 yrs. while waiting for most of them to die off and not have to pay anything, while continuing this punishment and where was the Vatican or yourself in this horrendous betrayal?

In 2000, Christians made up 20% of Bethlehem and today, while you laud Abbas, committed to destroying all of Israel and his state will be ‘Jew Free’ and “Gay Free”, there are only 2% Christians in Bethlehem. This is no accident for the persecution of Christians by Abbas’s Muslims has been horrendous and you keep silent about this oppression and murder while condemning Israel. You are such a hypocrite.

These are the same Islamic Nazi gangsters who danced in the streets after ‘9/11′ and who give out candy every time they kill a Jewish man, woman or child.

So 50 yrs. ago the Vatican finally said that Jews weren’t responsible for the killing of Jesus, after all the millions of Jews slaughtered on this premise before the Holocaust the Vatican is part of.

Yet, the Jew-hating today is out of control, again and as usual the Vatican is leading this menace with your contemptible politics, that is not only anti-Jewish, but anti-Christian.

There is no New Testament without the Old Testament, nor a Koran without the Old Testament.

Only a few years ago at a soccer match in Rome, a large sign was unveiled about sending Jews to the ovens. So much for Vatican teachings.

You say: “Who am I to Judge” concerning Gays, which is fine and then go and judge and condemn G-d’s Eternal Covenant with the Jewish Nation, that has been ‘occupying the Holy Land’ for 5000 years and demand that it be divided and given to the Abbas/Fatah/Hamas Islamic Nazis, aligned with Hitler to ‘kill all Jews’ and are still ‘killing all Jews’, still cowardly denying the Holocaust and their role in it and still hoping that Iran will finish what Hitler started with its nukes.

Of course if the Shia Muslims have a nuke with Iran, so must the Saudis have a nuke they will buy from Pakistan for the Sunni Muslims.

When 4600 Christians were murdered in 2014 by these Islamic Nazis, where were you?

A few meaningless speeches by you, while this genocide by ISIS, etc. against Christians and others is going on, is no different than the indifference to the slaughter in the Holocaust of Jews that the Vatican was in the middle of.

Nothing has changed.

The Israeli Government may want to play politics with you, but we know this corruption within the Vatican and its despicable politics and body count on so many levels and we are NOT letting you off the hook but holding you accountable and responsible as much as pulling the trigger itself..

We asked to meet with you before you went to Israel and the Vatican ignored us, including a personal visit to hand our issues to you also being ignored.

I did take photos of myself at the Vatican and holding signs: “Remember the Holocaust”; “No More Nazism”, “Keep Jerusalem United” and “From Hitler to Hamas, The Holocaust Continues”.

Now in 2015, you reward Abbas, responsible for killing of the 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

You embrace Abbas who started the 2nd Intifada and claims to have killed over 9000 Israelis.

You laud this monster who refuses to even hold free elections, while claiming all of Israel as his ‘Palestine.’

Could you be more deceitful and your Argentine Rabbi friend cannot cover for you on any of this.

We work with grassroots Catholics and Christians who are equally appalled by your behavior and politics in all of the above.

You’ve given your blessings to Hamas/Fatah which are Islamic Nazi killers. Hamas fired over 20,000 missiles into Israel, while using its women and children as human shields and hiding their missiles in mosques and schools and you support this?

As long as Jews are getting killed and wounded you couldn’t be happier.

Shame on you.

These are your values?

This is how you continue the Holocaust?

If you love these Islamic Nazi killers so much, why don’t you bring them to Italy for resettlement? Abbas admits that his leaving in 1948 wasn’t because of the Jews, but his fellow Arabs telling him that they would drive the Jews into the sea and to come back for all those Jewish spoils they could steal.

This was part of the Arabs throwing out 900,000 Jews and all stolen from them in 1948, as in Europe previously, in this grand theft and none of this is brought up on any level, especially when the Vatican is part and parcel of hoarding what has been stolen from the Jews, then and now.

Shalom International was the ONLY Jewish organization to Protest Pope John Paul II in 2000 with the same issues as above and again in 2009 when Pope Benedict was in Jerusalem.

Benedict said that ‘Gays are intrinsically evil’ and of course diverting attention from the 4000 priests/bishops/archbishops doing child molestations while admiring the Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo, that gay evil man, one of the world’s greatest artists.

If you bless Israel you are blessed. If you curse Israel, you are cursed.

Judge ye, lest ye be judged.

You have attacked G-d, Judaism, Israel, Jews, Christians, Muslims with the awful Vatican politics that has supported the Nazis, German or Islamic all along.

In 1989, as Executive Director of Cure Aids Now, we were the ONLY non-Government agency invited to the Vatican Aids Conference.

I shook hands with Pope John Paul II, gave him a “Curati la Sida” button in Italian and for 3 days heard nothing but ‘gay bashing’ and nothing about the AIDS virus, incubations, preventions, etc. I saw priests pleading for their lives and thrown out of this conference.

I told the Associated Press then that the Vatican was the biggest spreader of Aids and wouldn’t even discuss condoms among a host of issues, while playing the devil in this crisis. Now with 30,000,000 dead and 100 million infections, again the Vatican made the worse possible horrors to take place in its fallible and failed politics, that has cost so very many lives and so much pain.

Pope John Paul II in Israel in 2000 said he didn’t want an ambulance with the Star of David following him, nor if he needed a blood transfusion for any reason, he didn’t want any Jewish blood in him. His home in Poland was owned by a Jew killed at Auschwitz.

The Israeli government capitulated once again and said nothing.

Jesus was a Jew and circumcised and you again attack him by attacking the Jewish family and nation he was part of.

When will you ever practice what you preach?

From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to the Pogroms and then the Holocaust and all the Arab wars and terrorism attacks, the Vatican has always sided with those ready and willing to ‘kill all Jews.’

Again, bring Abbas and all of his Jew-haters into the Vatican permanently and in Italy and throughout Europe. After all, Arab oil and Muslim Jihadism that controls the UN, would be far more beneficial financially to the Vatican than the “Holy Land.”

By the way, would you ask the Muslims to give up Mecca for a phony’ land for peace’ deal…. that in 1938 had England’s Chamberlain’s ‘peace at any price’ paper with Hitler, that led to WWII and 60 millions dead and 7 million Jews slaughtered for their faith and also just for being Jews who were secular? Has anything changed with your appeasement Jew-hating politics?

Would you give up the Vatican for this phony peace with Abbas and the Islamic Nazis? Yet you demand that the Jews give up their Covenant that millions of Jews were murdered for. What chutzpah!

Such two-faced politics and the opposite of what Jesus taught and the shame it has wrought on humankind as a result, let alone the body count and sufferings, the grand thefts and resulting chaos, again threatening the security of the world, with the Vatican pushing this horror over and over again.

Perhaps, you should consider also making Abbas a Cardinal with all the trappings to enhance this farce.

This is your failure and your legacy.

Yours in Shalom

Bob Kunst, Pres. Shalom International

http://www.israpundit.org/

Palestine Freedom Flotilla… Appropriating the History and Struggles of the Jewish people

Posted on February 3, 2015 by ADARAPRESS

Spend enough time reading the primary historical evidence related to the Jewish people, Israel and the fabricated Palestinians, and one begins to understand the extent to which the “Palestinian Movement”  harvests and then appropriates the history of those it seeks to annihilate: The Jewish people.  At every turn, in everyway, with an obsessive, pathological zeal it seeks to displace and then erase them as seen here, in the extraordinary history of the Jewish refugee flotilla after World War II.

Anti-Semitism – Jew hatred- seems to have an irresistible appeal like no other chauvinism.  Those who partake in it, truly revel in it… become intoxicated by it.

And truth, facts — actual historical evidence — are as welcome as sobriety is to a crack addict.

The Authentic Palestine Freedom Flotilla

No! I do not mean the motley crew of terrorist enablers, terrorists and assorted curs and knaves that is taking to the briny to defame Israel and bring “humanitarian” aid to the denizen of Gaza. Never mind those immoral misfits who forgot how the residents of Gaza trashed and looted and destroyed the farms, greenhouses, state of the art farming tools and implements, organic fertilizers and even seeds in the lush gardens of Gush Katif which provided 70% of Israel’s produce and $120,000,000 in exports of foods and flowers.

I speak of a real Palestine freedom flotilla….that fleet of ancient and ramshackle ships and the valiant volunteer crews that transported the wretched survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine in defiance of the perverse British blockade between 1946 and 1948.

Britain’s notorious White Paper of 1939 which effectively cut off Jewish immigration to Palestine on the eve of the Holocaust was a death sentence for millions of European Jews trapped in Europe. After World War 11, British perfidy persisted and the 1939 White Paper remained the basis of British policy.  Its cruel provisions kept wretched survivors of the Holocaust trapped and homeless in displaced persons’ camps in hostile European nations or behind barbed wire in detention camps in Cyprus.

There were more than 140 voyages by about 70 ships. Over half were stopped by British navy patrols and sent to internment camps is Cyprus, or Atlit detention camp and some to Mauritius. A wonderful book by the author Natacha Appanah titled “The Last Brother” details the travails of the refugees in Mauritius.

One of the groups of rescue ships was named “Alya Bet.” Its earlier history is marred by tragedy. In the 1930s a group calling themselves by the same name attempted to rescue Jews from Europe but their efforts were hopeless. However, after the war the goal of taking survivors to Palestine became urgent and the movement for transferring refugees coalesced.

With breathtaking speed, Christians, Jews and philanthropists working together purchased ten ships which were fitted and manned by American and Canadian volunteer seamen. Many demobilized servicemen and merchant marine officers and oilers including many Christians volunteered, and many had no naval experience, but their mission was to rescue all Europe’s Jewish refugees who wanted to go to blockaded Palestine.

All but two of the ships were almost decrepit…four from pro World War 1, but among them they carried 60,000 refugees.

The ships from Canada and the United States were the following:

1. The Josiah Wedgewood (originally the Beauhamois), a Canadian corvette.
2. The Hagana (originally the Norsyd), also a Canadian corvette.
3. The Haim Arlosoroff (originally the Ulua), a coast guard cutter from the 1920s.
4. The Ben Hecht (originally the Abril) had been a private yacht, a smuggler’s boat and a coast guard vessel.
5. The Hatikva (originally the Tradewinds 1908) a coast guard cutter.
6. The Exodus 1947 (originally the President Warfield), a Chesapeake Bay excursion ferry.
7. The Geula (originally the Paducah, )a coast guard training vessel.
8. The Jewish State (originally the Northland), a coast guard icebreaker.
9. The Kibbutz Galuyot (originally the Pan York), a cargo vessel.
10. The Atzmaut (originally the Pan Crescent), also a cargo vessel.

When these ships reached the Palestine coast they were apprehended, boarded, and often rammed by the Royal Navy. Passengers were herded and transported to squalid prison camps on Cyprus formerly used to house German prisoners of war! The 4,530 passengers of the Exodus were threatened with return to Germany.  An American volunteer William Bernstein was clubbed to death on the Exodus 1947 by the British boarding party.

The British Navy was ordered to attack in case of any resistance. They used tear gas, clubs and firearms against refugees who occasionally fought back with sticks and eating cutlery.

Each ship had a heroic tale of its own. The USS Cythera (Pk31) was purchased from the United States Coast Guard, anchored in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal where Yitzhak Ben- Ami managed refurbishing and repair and became the S.S. Ben Hecht. Ben Ami was my friend and a hero and leader of the American League for a Free Palestine. His wicked son is Jeremy Ben Ami the treasonous brat who runs J Street.

Elliot Roosevelt, the son of FDR who was an experienced yachtsman volunteered to serve as captain of the Ben Hecht, but his mother persuaded him to withdraw the offer.

Yitzhak Ben Ami was also involved in the purchase of the Altalena as he detailed in his memoir “Years of Wrath, Years of Glory.” The controversial history of the Altalena and its destruction by Issraeli forces is best told by Professor Jerold Auerbach in his new book Brothers at War: Israel and the Tragedy of the Altalena.

The Chaim Arlossorof’s passengers put up heavy resistance but the ship was rammed and intercepted and beached with dozens wounded.

These were not the only ships that rescued Jewish refugees.  There were many more. The Dalin (August 1945), the Hanna Szenes (December 1945) and the Shabbetai Lozinski  (March 1947) went aground near Ashdod and on shore groups gathered and rescued all the passengers.

The Latrun captured by the HMS Chivalrous.(October 1946), the Knesset Yisrael Captured by 4 destroyers & others. Much resistance, 2 killed. All passengers taken to camps. (November 1946), Theodor Herzl (April 1947) Captured after several casualties and 2 killed.

The   Rafiah — Athina S. left Yugoslavia in November of 1946 but was wrecked and sank on December 1946. Eight refugees including three children perished. Survivors were transferred to a British minesweeper and taken to Cyprus.

Amiram Shochet — Ile de la Rose from Naples arrived undetected in August 1946 and discharged 183 fortunate passengers.

In March 1946 the British Army prevailed on the Italian authorities to prevent the departure from La Spezia harbor of the 1,014 refugees on board the Dov Hos and the Eliyahu Golomb; the immigrants reacted by declaring a hunger strike which aroused world public opinion and compelled Britain to permit the boats to reach Palestine.

One of the last clandestine immigration operations was a convoy of two large ships named “The Pans”, the Pan York and Pan Crescent, transporting more than 15,000 Jews, the majority from Romania, which left Bulgaria at the end of 1947 despite British and U.S. attempts to prevent their setting sail. The passengers were interned in the Cyprus detention camps.

These are only a handful of the ships involved in the Palestine Freedom Flotilla. The crews and passengers encountered mechanical difficulties, breakdowns, gales, turbulence, illness, cruel and humiliating treatment by the British government and incarceration in nearly unbearable circumstances. They persevered, and when Israel’s independence from England was declared the jails of Cyprus and Mauritius were opened and they sailed as free men, women and children to their home in Israel.

Ships continued to bring refugees to Israel, but the operations were no longer clandestine or met with violence and gunfire.

Honorable and gallant men embarked on an epic rescue for a noble cause. Their memory is a blessing.

The Gaza flotilla is a grotesque charade.

The best site with the most information and photos and details on the ships and their passengers during this heroic chapter is Paul Silverstone of the Alyah Bet Project : http://www.paulsilverstone.com/immigration/Primary/Aliyah/shiplist2.php

Also the list of voluteers for Israel in the Alyah Bet Movement appears at: http://israelvets.com/roster_aliyahbet_crews_ship.html.

Ruth King –  June 28, 2011 –

– See more at: http://cjhsla.org/2011/07/01/the-authentic-palestine-freedom-flotilla/#sthash.7ZQhcBBj.dpuf

British Navy Rammed Jewish Refugee Ship, Captured, then Shipped Holocaust Survivors to Germany from Israel | EXODUS 1947

British Navy Rammed Jewish Refugee Ship, Captured, then Shipped Holocaust Survivors to Germany from Israel | EXODUS 1947 (VIDEOS)

Posted on February 3, 2015 by ADARAPRESS

YouTube Notes:

After World War II, a group of private American citizens banded together in a clandestine effort to transport Holocaust survivors to Palestine.

On July 11, 1947, in the port of Sête, France, 4,500 Jewish refugees were crammed into the hull of a decrepit steamship, later named Exodus 1947.

A British blockade intercepted Exodus 1947 in international waters off the coast of Palestine. The tense standoff culminated in a direct attack by military personnel against the unarmed civilians on the Exodus 1947. This highly publicized international incident heavily influenced the United Nations resolution authorizing the partitioning of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. Thus, the Exodus 1947 voyage acted as a catalyst in forming a new nation. The program focuses on clandestine and illegal American efforts to finance and crew the most infamous of ten American ships that attempted to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine.

EXODUS 1947 is a one hour documentary narrated by Morley Safer with a score by Ilan Rechtman. The film is a richly layered program, constructed with first person accounts to recall events that shaped world history.

To buy the DVD, please go to http://www.exodus1947.com

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Palestine Freedom Flotilla... Appropriating the History and Struggles of the Jewish people

In "British - Arab Alliance"

The Story of the Ship "Exodus 1947"

The Story of the Ship "Exodus 1947"

Background Information on the British "White Paper" During World War I, although technically citizens of the Ottoman Empire’s province of Syria, Jews volunteered for service in the British Expeditionary Forces. First they joined Jabotinsky’s Zion Mule Corps, and later, together with Jewish volunteers from the U.S.A. and the U.K., formed the Jewish Legion, also known as the London Fusiliers, three battalions that participated in General Allenby's final campaigns. This alignment with the Allied cause in World War I, as well as the work of Dr. Chaim Weizmann and other outstanding Jewish leaders, led to the Balfour Declaration of November 1917, which declared Britain’s support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the now renamed Palestine, to be established without prejudicing the rights of the Arab inhabitants already living there. This declaration was enthusiastically supported by many British leaders, including Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Arthur Balfour, and others. Hussein Sharif, the leader of the Arab world during World War I, did not oppose the return of Jews to Palestine. His son, Feisal, who represented the Arab world at the Paris Peace Conference, wrote to Justice Felix Frankfurter of the United States: “There is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a success without the other." On January 3, 1919 Faisal Weizmann Agreement was signed in London relinquishing all claims to Palestine to the Jewish people, During the war, promises of independence had been made to Arab leaders by the Allies, and these promises were later implemented in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. But many Arabs were also to claim the area now known as Palestine to be within “Greater Syria”. In 1922 the Council of the League of Nations implemented the 1920 San Remo Agreement and granted a Mandate to the British Government as trustee for the Jewish people, entrusting it inter alia with the task of ruling Palestine and implementing the Balfour Declaration in reconstituting Palestine aka The Land of Israel as The National Home for The Jewish People. At the time approximately 95,000 Jews lived in Palestine. Included in this number were Jews who had lived for centuries in the country, and indeed for over a hundred years the Jewish population had constituted the majority of the citizens in the city of Jerusalem. Under the Mandate, Jewish immigration, although limited by the authorities, increased the Jewish population seven-fold until by 1947 it numbered some 620,000. The higher standard of living created by the Jewish immigrants attracted Arabs from surrounding countries, and their population grew to over one million in the same period, as there were no limitations on their settling in Palestine. The Palestine Mandate granted to Britain included the entire area of Trans-Jordan on the East Bank of the River Jordan, as well as the area on the West Bank. In 1922, the British Secretary of State for the colonies, Winston Churchill, in violation of agreements created an emirate under Emir (later King) Abdullah in the area of Trans-Jordan, later to become an independent Arab-Palestinian country, Jordan. Thus, 80 percent of the mandated area of Palestine was illegally allocated as an autonomous area for the Arabs of Palestine. But over the years – in 1922, 1929, and 1936 – Arab disturbances broke out incited by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. In 1937, a British Royal Commission headed by Lord Peel recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish State, a continued Mandate for Jerusalem, and the annexation of the remainder to Trans-Jordan. The Jewish community was willing to contemplate such a solution, but the Arabs were not. In 1939 the British had promulgated a policy document called “The White Paper of 1939.” It illegally imposed a quota for Jewish immigration and limited Jewish acquisition of land. The White Paper deplored both Arab terrorism and the unlimited Jewish immigration which inspired it. The White Paper accordingly set the goal of bringing the Jewish population up to approximately one-third of the total population of the country, and allowed only an additional 75,000 immigrants, starting with 10,000 per year over the following five years. Keeping the Jews as a minority was specifically intended to appease Arab concerns by thwarting Jewish sovereignty in any democratic or representative government. During the years of the British Mandate for Palestine, the British authorities turned a blind eye while hundreds of thousands of Arabs from neighboring countries crossed the border illegally to settle in Palestine. The Zionists sought precisely the opposite. The Jews wanted the British to abide by the terms of the Mandate for Palestine and not restrict Jewish immigration into Palestine aka The Land of Israel. Both sides hated the White Paper which was obviously pro-Arab. Violence against Jewish communities continued, and in addition, the British needed to secure Palestine as the strategic flank of its vital interest in Egypt, mainly the Suez Canal and access to the oil producing countries in the Middle East. Background Information on Aliyah Bet The Jewish Agency and the Haganah had already begun Aliyah Bet – illegal immigration – in a small way in the 1930s; in addition, some attempts to promote it were made during World War II, even though the British enforcement of their White Paper policy was successful. In spite of this, over 30,000 of the Jewish population volunteered into the British forces, seeing service in North Africa, Italy and Europe. The war and the Holocaust wrought by Nazi Germany, resulted in the murder of six million Jews. The remnants who survived clamored to leave Europe and reach a national home in Palestine, but the British Government was committed to severely limiting Jewish immigration and the sale of land for Jewish settlements. Thus the new post-war British Labour government found itself on a collision course with the Jews of Palestine. This caused the Haganah and the Mossad to mount an aggressive policy of transporting displaced war refugees to Palestine. Against this background, some 250 North American Jews, as well as some non-Jews, volunteered to serve on the Aliyah Bet ships bringing survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine. Most of them had completed between two to five years of service in World War II, but not many had served in the navy, and were therefore inexperienced seamen. Link to the story of Aliyah Bet The "Exodus 1947" ("President Warfield") With the increase of illegal immigration, the British authorities decided to stop it by a new plan: sending the ships back to their ports of embarkation. The first and only ship involving this new policy was the "Exodus." Formerly the "President Warfield," and launched at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1928, it had sailed as a pleasure cruiser on the Chesapeake Bay between Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore for over a decade, with the exception of two seasons of sailing on the Long Island Sound from 1928 until 1942. In 1942 it was appropriated by the United States Wartime Shipping Administration for convoy duty as the "U.S.S. President Warfield" (IX 169). In 1943 it was in a convoy attacked by German U-Boats and later deployed in the Normandy invasion as a barrack headquarters, coming under German air attacks. Decommissioned in 1946, the ship was bought for US$8,000 as scrap by the Western Trading Company, a front for the Haganah, which later became the Israel Defense Forces. It is said that Jewish-American Sam (the Banana Man) Zemurray was instrumental in obtaining the ship for the Haganah, which would explain its Honduran registration as Zemurray United Fruit Company, a company which pretty much owned the banana republic of Honduras. The shallow draft of the Bay steamer seemed ideal for the Haganah tactic of beaching boats containing refugee immigrants off the shores of Palestine, then bringing the passengers in by lifeboat or by wading ashore. The steamship was refitted in Baltimore and sailed from that port for France on 25th February 1947, carrying 4,554 Jewish men and women and 655 children, all survivors of the Holocaust, trailed by the “Ajax” and several destroyers. Link to Alan Tyler story The commander of the cruiser “Ajax” repeatedly demanded by loudspeakers that the ship discontinue its journey. However, Captain Ike Aronowicz ignored the demands and steered the President Warfield towards the Bat Yam beach in Palestine. On 17th July 1947, the President Warfield was renamed “Exodus 1947” in a ceremony on the open sea, the Zionist blue-white flag with the Star of David was hoisted and “Hatikvah,” later to become the Israeli national anthem, was sung over and over. The following night, two British destroyers rammed the "Exodus 1947" from both sides, damaging the hull, railings and lifeboats. It was boarded by sailors and Royal Marines and a desperate struggle developed, the refugees using tin cans, screwdrivers, potatoes, bottles, wooden boards and metal bars as weapons. As described by a refugee Noah Klieger, “we were determined not to surrender the ship to the British without a fight. It was an unequal battle, and eventually the Royal Navy boarding party, using truncheons and light firearms, succeeded in bringing the "Exodus" under its control. The clash had lasted several hours and resulted in three deaths –- Second Officer William (Bill) Bernstein, an American Aliyah Bet volunteer crew member, a 15-year-old refugee Zvi Jakubowitz, and one other. Some 150 were injured, including other American volunteer crew members." The "Exodus 1947" passengers were kept in check on deck with truncheons.  Their "weapons" (potatoes) lie on the deck. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.). In the late afternoon of 18th July 1947, the "Exodus 1947" was escorted to the port of Haifa by the British warships. As UN official Emil Sandstroem (bottom right, white hat) looks on, British soldiers remove Jewish refugees from the ship "Exodus 1947." The passengers are deported back to Europe. Haifa, Palestine, July 20 1947. ( Central Zionist Archives) The "Exodus 1947," flying the Zionist flag, being escorted by the British into Haifa. (Stiftung Preußische Kulturbesitz, Berlin) After reaching Haifa, British soldiers transferred the "Exodus 1947" passengers, exhausted from the sea journey and the battle, to three freighters converted into caged prison ships. It was named “Operation Oasis.” The next day, the three caged prison ships, the "Ocean Vigour," the "Runnymede Park," and the "Empire Rival," departed Haifa with the "Exodus" passengers. 1,464 people were accommodated on the "Ocean Vigour," some 1,409 on the "Runnymede Park" and 1,526 were crammed into the belly of the "Empire Rival." The refugees assumed that as illegal emigrants they would be interned in camps on the island of Cyprus. But what was initially a rumor was later confirmed: the three prison ships were sailing towards the European mainland, back towards France. The conditions on board these ships were harsh. The refugees lay crammed together in the bare holds of the freighters. Noah Klieger remembers his impressions of the "Empire Rival:" "We slept, squeezed together, on the bare boards of the ship." Groups were formed on all three ships, and under Haganah command, they began to build an organization. It was resolved that all passengers were to remain on board, and not disembark, on arriving in France. The refugees were repeatedly encouraged to keep resisting. The success of these tactics was made more complicated as communication between the three ships was not possible. The ships first landed at Toulon, France, where the passengers were ordered to disembark. When the French authorities refused to use force to remove the refugees from the ship, British authorities, fearing adverse public opinion, decided to wait until the passengers disembarked of their own accord. But the passengers, including many orphaned children, forced the issue by declaring a hunger strike, the British were forced to return them to Lübeck (near Hamburg), in the British-occupied zone of Germany. Amid worldwide public outrage, the British authorities compelled the passengers to disembark, and some were forcibly removed from the ship. The passengers were then transferred to displaced persons camps in Germany. Though the mission was not successful in delivering any immigrants to Eretz Yisrael, it did attract international media attention, and persuaded the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine to recommend (non-binding with no legal standing) partitioning Palestine and establishing a Jewish state. The former passengers Exodus were permitted to immigrate to Palestine in small groups, and most were present in Israel on May 15 1948 when the nation declared its independence. Link to British secret naval report on President Warfield <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Miriam; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:177; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:6145 0 0 0 32 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:justify; line-height:18.0pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:13.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Miriam; mso-bidi-language:HE;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:321084207; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:2091277594 -1396260890 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:.75in; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:.75in; text-indent:-.5in;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --> The crew of the "Exodus 1947" USA USA Aras, Joe Marks, Bernard Aranoff, Murray Miller (Milla), Bernard (Dov) Baruch, Kurt Millman, David Bernstein, William (Bill) Millman, William Baer (Belari), Shmuel Nadler, Nat Foreman, Bentley Naftali, Al Grauf, John (N/J) Rofe, Roger Goldstein, Myron Rosenfeld (Vardi), Teddy Kalmanowitz (Kalm), Eli Russel, Jack Kochavi (Storek), David Schulman, Samuel Kolomeitzer (Cole), Arye Segal (Syval), Avraham Lavine, Frank Selove, Lou Leidner, Harold Sklar, Lenny Lester, Sol Stanczak, Frank Lipshitz (Livney), Arthur (Avi) Weinsaft, Harry Lowenthal, David Weinstein, Cyril (Cy) Malik, Louis Weiss, Mike Malovsky, Daniel UK MEXICO Cohen, Joshua, Dr. Margolis, Ruben Segal, Ze’ev (Vevie) DENMARK Katzenelson, Zvi Source: Adapted and abridged by Joseph Wolf from the following sources: i. USA Holocaust Memorial Museum ii. Jewish Virtual Library iii. Everything2.com iv. Introductory historical background from “The Arab Israeli Wars” by Chaim Herzog.