WOODHEAD COMMISSION

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What was the Woodhead Commission of 1938?

The Woodhead Commission of 1938 was created to examine the recommendation of the Peel Commission that Palestine be partitioned. In 1937 the Twentieth Zionist Congress rejected the boundaries proposed by the Peel Commission, but agreed in principle to partition. Palestinian Arab nationalists rejected any kind of partition. The British government approved the idea of partition in principle and sent a technical team, the Woodhead Commission, to make a detailed plan. But the real purpose of the Commission was to counter the hostile Arab currents manifest in the 1937 renewal of the Arab Revolt against British rule in Palestine and the region. The dispatch of the Woodhead Commission, it was hoped in London, would be an opportunity to show support for Arab aspirations and thereby reduce tensions.

The Woodhead Commission arrived in Palestine late in April 1938 and remained until early August. In November its report was published and revealed that no plan of partition could be evolved within the terms of reference which would, in the view of the members of the Commission, offer much hope of success. The Peel plan was rejected and two possible alternatives were considered. Plan B would have reduced the size of the Jewish State by the addition of Galilee to the permanently mandated area and of the southern part of the region south of Jaffa to the Arab State. Plan C would have limited the Jewish State to the coastal region between Zikhron Yaaqov and Rehovoth while northern Palestine, including the Plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel, and all the semi-arid region of southern Palestine would have been placed under separate mandate. Two members of the Commission favored Plan C, one favored Plan B, and one declared that no practicable scheme of partition could be devised.

The British Government accompanied the publication of the Woodhead Report by a statement of policy rejecting partition as impracticable in the light of the Commission's investigations, but suggesting that Arab-Jewish agreement might still be possible. This idea led to the St. James Conference of 1939.

Thus, the Woodhead Commission reversed the Peel Commission's findings and reported in November 1937 that partition was impracticable; this view in its turn was accepted. The British put down the 1937 Arab revolt using harsh measures, shutting down the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), a loose coalition of recently formed Arab political parties, and deporting many Palestinian Arab leaders.

Sources and additional reading on this topic:

• 1938 - Woodhead Commission
• Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry - Appendix IV
• History of Israel: The Palestinian Revolt, 1936-39