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The Cyprus internment camps were camps maintained in Cyprus by the British government for the internment of Jews who had immigrated or attempted to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British policy. There were a total of 12 camps, which operated from August 1946 to January 1949, and in total held 53,510 Jews.[1][2]
Britain informed the UN that it would no longer administer the Mandate for Palestine on February 14, 1947. This prompted the UN General Assembly to recommend partition of Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states on November 29. Some 28,000 Jews were still interned in the camps when the Mandate was dissolved, partition was enacted, and the independent State of Israel was established at midnight local time on May 14, 1948. About 11,000 internees remained in the camps as of August 1948, with the British releasing and transporting them to Haifa at the rate of 1,500 a month. Israel began the final evacuation of the camps in December 1948, with the last 10,200 internees (mainly men of military age) being evacuated to Israel during January and February 1949.[2]
In the White Paper of 1939, the British government decided that future Jewish immigration to Palestine would be limited to 75,000 over the next five years, with further immigration subject to Arab consent. At the end of World War II, there were still 10,938 immigration certificates remaining but the five years had expired.[3] The British government agreed to continue issuing 1,500 certificates per month, but the influx of Jews, especially from the displaced person camps in Europe, well exceeded that number.[3] It was decided in August 1946 to hold many of the illegal immigrants on Cyprus.[3] Previous places of detention had included Atlit detainee camp in Palestine, and a camp in the Mauritius.[4] A few thousand refugees, mostly Greeks but also a "considerable number" of Jews from the Balkans, had reached Cyprus during the war years.[5]
At its peak there were nine camps in Cyprus, located at two sites about 50km apart. They were Caraolos, north of Famagusta, and Dekhelia, outside of Larnaca.[6] The first camp, at Caraolos, had been used from 1916 to 1923 for Turkish prisoners of war.[7]
The majority of Cyprus detainees were intercepted before reaching Palestine, usually by boat.[4][7] Some were on vessels that had successfully run the British blockade, but were caught in Palestine. Most of them were Holocaust survivors, about 60% from the displaced person camps and others from the Balkans and other Eastern European countries.[4] A very small group of Moroccan Jews was also in the camps.[4] The prisoners were mostly young, 80% between 13 and 35, and included over 6,000 orphans.[4] About 2,000 children were born in the camps.[4] The births took place in the Jewish wing of the British Military Hospital in Nicosia. Some 400 Jews died in the camps, and were buried in Margoa cemetery.[8]
Escape attempts
A number of escape attempts took place while the camps were active. The most significant was in August 1948, when an estimated 100 inmates escaped a detention camp via a secret tunnel the British believed had been dug over a period of six months. The British believed that the escapees were being met by Jewish representatives in Cyprus, and "selected male specialists" among the refugees were being put on small boats capable of reaching Israel in 24 hours, which were being brought to Cyprus at night. Some 29 refugees were arrested over the incident and given prison sentences ranging from four to nine months. One man managed to escape while being transported from court to prison.[9][10] In January 1949, as the British began deporting the final batch of inmates to Israel, an unspecified number of Jews who had escaped the camps and had remained at large in Cyprus turned themselves in so they could be sent to Israel.[11]
Evacuation
When on February 14, 1947, Britain informed the United Nations that it would no longer administer the mandate for Palestine, some 28,000 Jews were still interned in the camps of Cyprus. After the declaration of independence of the State of Israel in May 1948, there were still 24,000 illegal immigrants in the Cypriot internment camps, who expected to be released quickly but faced the refusal of the British authorities to charter ships under their flag to take them to the Promised Land. The Jewish Agency prepared itself the organization of transports for the absorption of immigrants.[12]
Two weeks later, with immigration still stalled, the Cypriot detainees appealed to the UN to pressure for their release.[13] On June 7, a hunger strike took place. Finally, emigration from Cyprus began in early July 1948 with two large ships Hatzmaout and Kibboutz Galuyot which carried more than 4,100 immigrants from its camps.[14] However, in order not to help Israel in the War of Independence, the British still banned immigration of men of conscription age, i.e. those aged 18 to 45.[15] Between the British authorities and the detainees, a struggle ensued over permission to release the fathers of 170 babies with their children.[16] About 11,000 internees, mainly men of military age, imprisoned for most of the war, remained in the camps in August 1948.[2] In January 1949, an undetermined number of Jews who had previously been able to escape the camps and had remained free in Cyprus, surrendered in order to be sent to Israel.[11]
Despite the initial refusal and procrastination of the British, aliyah was finally approved and the camps were definitively evacuated on February 11, 1949,[15] although some families and individuals remained in Cyprus until November 1949 for health reasons or because they had young babies.
Immigration quota system
From November 1946 to the time of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in May 1948, Cyprus detainees were allowed into Palestine at a rate of 750 people per month.[4] During 1947-48, special quotas were given to pregnant women, nursing mothers, and the elderly.[4][6] Released Cyprus detainees amounted to 67% of all immigrants to Palestine during that period. Following Israeli independence, the British began deporting detainees to Israel at a rate of 1,500 per month. They amounted to 40% of all immigration to Israel during the war months of May–September 1948.[4] The British kept about 11,000 detainees, mainly men of military age, imprisoned throughout most of the war. On January 24, 1949, the British began sending these detainees to Israel, with the last of them departing for Israel on February 11, 1949.[2][4]
Camp conditions
Cyprus winter camp
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the "Joint") provided most of the detainees' needs, including welfare and medical aid, two nurseries, and extra food rations.[6] The Jewish Agency sent teachers and social workers from Palestine[6] but refused to give direct aid to the detainees on the grounds that it would grant legitimacy to the camps.[17]
Conditions in the camps were very harsh, with poor sanitation, crowding, lack of privacy, and shortage of clean water being the main complaints.[6] The local Joint director Morris Laub considered that the German prisoners of war housed in adjacent camps were treated better.[18]
In popular media
The 1960 film Exodus, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris, starts with the arrival of Jews in a camp. The presence of Palestine volunteers is also shown.
The book series "Promise of Zion" by Robert Elmer references the camps as the main character avoids being captured with other Jews on board a ship, and again when he returns to Cyprus in search of his mother. The camps' living condition are described in more detail here.
The Atlit detainee camp was a concentration camp established by the authorities of Mandatory Palestine in the late 1930s on what is now the Israeli coastal plain, 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Haifa. Under British rule, it was primarily used to hold Jews and Arabs who were in administrative detention; it largely held Jewish immigrants who did not possess official entry permits. Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were interned at the camp, which was surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers.
Tell Qasile is an archaeological site near the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 3,000 years old, the site contains the remains of a port city founded by the Philistines in the 12th century BC.
Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians were the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine region prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Be'er Sheva Airfield, also known as the Teyman Airfield is an Israeli airfield located near Beersheba. The airfield is mainly used for flight training, general aviation activity, gliding and skydiving operations. The main operator of the airfield is Ayit Aviation, owned by Captain Eli Peretz, who has managed the airfield for the last 25 years.
HaOn is a kibbutz on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. Located at the foot of the Golan Heights about a twenty-minute drive from the city of Tiberias, it is part of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. HaOn formerly operated as a kibbutz belonging to the United Kibbutz Movement. In 2022 it had a population of 179.
Musa Alami Arabic: موسى العلمي, Müsə al-‘Alāmi) was a prominent Palestinian nationalist and politician. Due to Alami having represented Palestine at various Arab conferences, in the 1940s, he was viewed by many as the leader of the Palestinian Arabs.
Ezuz is a small community settlement in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Named for Nahal Ezuz, a dry riverbed, it is located to the south of Nitzana and falls under the jurisdiction of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 86.
Komemiyut is an Hasidic moshav in south-central Israel. Located in the southern Shephelah near Kiryat Gat, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 606.
Kfar Uria is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Beit Shemesh in the Shephelah. It falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 910.
Yohanan Aharoni was an Israeli archaeologist and historical geographer, chairman of the Department of Near East Studies and chairman of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel-Aviv University.
Joseph Kruk was a socialist and Jewish-nationalist activist from his youth in Russia and Poland, where he played a political role between-the-wars. In 1940 he saved his life moving from Poland to Eretz Israel. Utill his death he was known in Israel as a journalist.
Jaffa, also called Japho or Joppa in English, is an ancient Levantine port city now part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on the Mediterranean coastline.
Maksis "Max" Lazerson was a Latvian politician, jurist and philosopher. He was a member of Saeima from 1922 to 1925 and again in 1928 to 1931. He led the Ceire Cion party during the interwar period in Latvia.
The Plurinational State of Bolivia and the State of Israel first established a diplomatic relationship with each other in 1950, two years after the Israeli Declaration of Independence and one year after Bolivia recognized Israel's sovereignty. Both countries enjoyed generally stable and close ties until the beginning of the 21st century, when successive Bolivian governments became vocally opposed to Israeli military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under the Bolivian political party Movement for Socialism, which has governed the country on a near-continuous basis since 2006, Bolivia has adopted an increasingly pro-Palestinian stance at the United Nations with regard to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, eliciting a negative response from the Israeli government.
Morris "Tubby" Raskin was an American basketball player and coach. He played for the Brooklyn Arcadians in the American Basketball League (ABL). He later coached the men's basketball team at Brooklyn College, the Hartford Hurricanes in the ABL, the Israel men's national basketball team for Israel at the 1952 Summer Olympics, and the U.S. basketball team to a gold medal in the 1953 Maccabiah Games.
Mișu restaurant, or as it was commonly called, "Mișu the King of the Kebab", was a Romanian cuisine restaurant that operated between 1960 and 2015 in Jaffa, Israel.
Tzvi Ayalon was a Haganah leader and a major general (Aluf) in the Israel Defense Forces, he served as the first Deputy Chief of General Staff as well as the commander of the Central Command (Israel). After his military service he served as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Defense (Israel) and Ambassador of Israel in Romania.
Eliyahu Tamler was an Irgun senior commander, who fought in the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine.
The Jewish Child Forest is an Israeli grove in the Western Upper Galilee. It was planted by the Jewish National Fund between 1978 and 1979, to mark the 30th year of the State of Israel, as part of an educational operation to learn about the Holocaust.
References
↑ [Archivist tracks down the 'lost babies' of Cyprus' Jewish refugee camps] - Haaretz
1 2 3 4 Tucker, Spencer C.: The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History (2008), p. 280
1 2 3 Arieh Kochavi (1998). "The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine". Middle Eastern Studies. 34 (3): 146–167. doi:10.1080/00263209808701236.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dalia Ofer (1996). "Holocaust survivors as immigrants - the case of Israel and the Cyprus detainees". Modern Judaism. 16: 1–23. doi:10.1093/mj/16.1.1.
↑ Bernard Wasserstein (1979). Britain and the Jews of Europe 1939-1945. London: Institute of Jewish Affairs. p.329. ISBN978-0-7185-0158-7.
1 2 3 4 5 Rakafet Zalashik and Nadav Davidovitch (2006). "Measuring adaptability: Psychological examinations of Jewish detainees in Cyprus internment camps". Science in Context. 19 (3): 419–441. doi:10.1017/s0269889706001001. PMID17214438. S2CID35371611.
1 2 Ulvi Keser (2009). "Turkish assistance activities for the Jewish immigrants and Jewish immigrant camps in Cyprus during Second World War". Ege Academic Review. 9: 735–758. (includes list of boats)
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