Haycraft+Commission

The Haycraft Commission of 1921, created in respose to the Jaffa Riots, stated that the conflicts between Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews were precipitated by the economic threat Jewish immigrants to Palestine posed to peasant-class Arabs. As the Jewish National Fund began buying land from absentee Arab landowners, the Palestinians living and working on the land were removed, thereby making them homeless and unemployed. The Jaffa Riots were also caused by a sense of helplessness present in Palestinian Arabs, caused by the great amount of influence Zionist organizations had on the mandatory government. The Haycraft Commission found that the Jaffa Riots were caused by a sense of helplessness (both economically and politically) apparent in Palestinian Arabs. Because of the statements of the Haycraft Commission, Jewish immigration was temporarily suspended by the British government until the Churchill White Paper of 1922.

Citation: Binkerton and Klausner