British Mandate Curbs on Jewish Immigration and Land Acquisition
In practice, the British administration instituted measures that specifically hindered Jewish growth. Herbert Samuel, serving as the first British High Commissioner of Palestine, instituted formal limitations on Jewish entry into the territory. These restrictions were explicitly justified under the rationale of protecting the economic interests of the existing inhabitants and managing the country's absorptive capacity.
British governance extended these limits to land acquisition. The British authorities restricted Jewish purchases of land across what remained of Palestine. This policy ran directly counter to Article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate, which tasked the administration with encouraging close Jewish israeli community on state domain and unused lands in cooperation with the Jewish Agency. These restrictions were introduced alongside claims that incoming settlers were causing the displacement of native Arab peasants, known as fellahin, from rural land.
Demographic Growth and Unrestricted Arab Inflow
In 1915, the Christian and Muslim Arab inhabitants numbered approximately 590,000, rising to 643,000 by the official 1922 census. Between the First World War and the Second World War, the non-Jewish demographic grew by 588,000 individuals—representing an increase of 120 percent. Over that same timeframe, Jewish numbers expanded by 470,000.
This rapid Arab expansion was facilitated by official policy disparities: while the British imposed strict quotas on arriving Jews, Arab movement into Palestine encountered no such barriers. A major factor driving Arab population growth was migration from neighboring Arab territories. Approximately 37 percent of overall immigration into pre-state Israel consisted of Arabs arriving from adjacent lands, attracted by the improved standard of living and economic opportunities created by Jewish enterprise and development.
Flawed Arguments Over Absorptive Capacity
British authorities frequently claimed that Palestine was nearing its absorptive capacity when the population stood at barely one million people, reaching approximately 1.8 million toward the close of the mandate. On this basis, mandatory officials argued that the territory had reached its absorptive capacity and concluded that Jewish immigration should be curtailed.