Jewish settlements in the 1940s
Palestine under High Commissioner Harold MacMichael hasn't been touched by World War II so far, but that doesn't mean that the situation there was quiet. The Arab revolt of 1936-39 with several thousand dead, suppressed by Bernard Montgomery (now a PoW after fighting for the BEF in Belgium) isn't really long ago. And the competing Jewish paramilitary groups of Haganah (20,000 men) and Irgun under David Raziel (a few thousand men, but with the potential to arm many more) are, to say the least, discontent about the White Paper of 1939 which limits Jewish immigration into Palestine. However, since they are fighting against Nazi Germany now, David Ben-Gurion decided to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war". Meanwhile, the Italian secret service supports - as during the revolt - the Arabs and meddles otherwise, while the Nazis have a famous sympathizer in the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini...
Of the 1.5 to 1.6 Million people are - after several waves of Jewish immigration ("Aliyah") - more than a quarter Jews.
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