The Patria affair

1This article examines the fierce controversy generated by the Patria affair, which was a crucial juncture in the history of the illegal immigration to Palestine. Jewish life in Palestine constituted the purpose of the Zionist dream and the precondition for its realization. The possibility of bringing Jews to Palestine was severely curtailed by the stringent restrictions on Jewish immigration in the White Paper published by the British government in May 1939 and the spread of World War II to the Mediterranean theater in 1940. Against this background, the political organizations of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) became divided on the question of what measures should be taken in view of Britain’s retreat from its promise to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine. In this period, two major factions concerning the use of force had evolved in Mapai (the Israel Workers Party), which was the most dominant and influential party in the Yishuv. While the “activists” called for intensive combat against the British, the “moderates” advocated a policy of utmost restraint as a means of realizing the aims of the Zionist movement in its struggle for a homeland. In the 1940s the moderates became a distinct political stream within Mapai, which continually found itself clashing with the activist views of the senior party members. At the head of the Mapai activists were David Ben-Gurion, Berl Katznelson, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Aharon Zisling, Dov Hoz, Shaul Meirov (Avigur) and Yisrael Galili. The moderates were headed by Eliezer Kaplan, David Remez, Yosef Sprinzak, Pinhas Lubianiker (Lavon) and Yitzhak Lofban

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