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British warned of 'bitterness' over handling of Exodus ship

April 26, 2013 15:21
The SS Exodus (Photo: British Admiralty)

By

Jennifer Lipman,

Jennifer Lipman

2 min read

The High Commissioner to Palestine warned officials in London that the "bitterness evoked" by events on board the SS Exodus in 1947 should not be underestimated.

The extent of the damage to relations between the Jews and their British rulers as a result of the decision to force those on board – many of them Holocaust survivors - to return to Europe is made clear in a series of newly-released intelligence reports from the colonial era.

"The Yishuv has followed events… with close attention," said one report, authored by Sir Alan Cunningham, then the British High Commissioner, noting the end to "the intermission in illegal immigration".

He wrote: "The intransigent attitude of the passengers has been applauded… Meanwhile the Hebrew press seizes every opportunity to use this incident as a stick with which to beat the Palestine Administration and His Majesty's Government, and to sustain the bitterness which the deportation undoubtedly aroused."