[Don Joe]

"In 1937 the Jewish population swelled to 500,000 as a result of attempt to escape Hitler. At that time there were about 1,200,000 Arabs living there who wanted further Jewish immigration sharply restricted."

I see that "religion of peace" thing goes way back, eh?

[RLK]

What happened was that coincident with, or just after, the Balfour Resolution establishing a zionist state, the attempt was made to grant Arabs minority citizenship status in what was then Palestine. It really pissed the Arabs off. They came to realize the writing was on the wall if further immigration occurred, and they consequently tried to prevent it. According to page 258 of the 1998 Time Almanac there were 678,000 Jews living in the area, and 1,269,000 Arabs. The Arabs didn't want imposition of a Jewish state. This is what they were attempting to prevent in earlier attempts to prevent immigration. Obviously, the Arabs lost out. They haven't forgiven what happened to this day.