Sir — Baroness Deech (Letters, September 19) is wrong: Britain did plan a Palestinian state. A 1939 White Paper rejected partition and proposed Palestinian-Jewish shared independence within ten years. The 1945 Labour Government continued this policy.
In the 1920s writer Asher Ginsberg saw Jewish settlers “behave towards Arabs with cruelty, infringe… their boundaries, hit them shamefully without reason and… brag about it”. A 1930 Royal Commission found the Jewish National Fund excluded Palestinian peasants from land it bought and Jewish unions excluded Palestinian workers from Jewish businesses. In 1947, the UN illegally denied Palestinian self-determination and designated 55 per cent of Palestine for a Jewish state. Before the British left, Zionists planned to conquer 78 per cent and expel 800,000 Palestinians. The 1948 war achieved this. Arab countries expelled Jews in retaliation.
Israel still refuses Palestinian refugees’ right to return. 466,000 Jews inhabit Palestinian land illegally and Israel’s security barrier is routed illegally to protect them. Israel prefers land to peace.
Hugh Jaeger, Oxford
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