Palestine Action is just the Reform Party

 At the end of the 19th century Theodore Herzl promoted Zionism, that Jewish people should return to Palestine to escape anit-semitism. Recall that the idea of the return is based on the expulsion of jews from Israel by the colonial power, Romans, in the first century of the christian era. 

In 1917 Chaim Weizmann, then a chemist in Manchester persuaded Arthur Balfour to make his declaration. Weimann was a jewish refugee from Byelorussia who believed in Zionism and became the first president of the state of Israel, partly in return for his contribution to the british war effort, see below.

 There had been migration from eastern Europe under  Ottoman rule but possible under 100,000 but after the end of the first world war jews, mainly from Europe began to move to the by now UK controlled Palestine. In these cases they came as refugees fleeing what they saw as being places where they were victimised and dicriminated against. 

However they often came with support bought land and farms and developed communities both kibbutz and small settlements, some of which grew quite dramatically, Tel Aviv. As the numbers grew, especially under the mandate granted to the UK to rule Palestine the majority population, mainly Muslim resented the refugees. After all Palestine was for the Palestinians, just like England is for the English. 

Whilst many Palestinians got on with the newcomers, did business with them, some began to campaign and persuaded the mandate authorities to try to control the immigration of jews into Palestine. This is the same attitude we see from Reform and their supporters. Palestine Action are just the heirs to the campaigns against Jewish immigration with the same philosophy as their modern counterparts in Britain represented by Reform. It is interesting that so many on the left joyfully march under this banner.

 

 

  This come from https://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2008/05/12/140508_israel_weizmann_feature.shtml

Cordite and conkers

Cordite - used in the manufacture of ammunition and artillery – was in short supply and Britain needed to produce its own. For that, a chemical called acetone was required.

Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister (1902-05)

When supply routes were cut, Lloyd George, as Minister of Munitions, turned to Dr Weizmann after learning of a development which could aid the war effort.

Working in Manchester, Weizmann had discovered a fermentation process to produce large volumes of acetone from maize.

When supplies of maize ran short, it was even supplemented with horse chestnuts – or conkers – avidly collected by British schoolchildren!

Balfour declaration

Lloyd George’s gratitude was evident and led directly to British approval for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people - the state of Israel.

UK Zionists (c) M'cr Jewish Museum

Certainly, Weizmann’s scientific assistance brought him into close contact with British leaders, including the then Prime Minister and later Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour - whose constituency coincidentally lay in Manchester.

Then, on 2 November 1917, soon after Britain's acquisition of Palestine in the First World War, came the statement the Manchester Zionists had been waiting for: the Balfour Declaration.

Dr Weizmann who’d been waiting patiently outside for news outside the cabinet office in Downing Street was, of course, delighted. He celebrated into the night, apparently joining fellow Zionists in a Chassidic dance at a Chelsea restaurant!