FO 608/99
The first four pages of a letter written from Cairo by staunchly pro-Zionist Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen.
is remembered in part for his alleged anti-Semitism.
“The people of Palestine”, Meinertzhagen argued, "are not at present in a fit state to be told openly that the establishment of Zionism in Palestine is the policy to which H.M.G. America and France are committed."
He reasserted that “the determination of H.M.G. to establish Zionism in Palestine ... is still with-held from the general public.”
He confirms (indeed appears to boast) that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinains was the plan. The “acknowledged superiority of Jewish brains and money”, he wrote, will force Palestinian “land-owners and business men to realise their impotence to withstand eventual eviction”.
He describes Palestinians’ objections to “the minority [Zionist settlers] ruling the majority [the Palestinians]” as “fanatical”.
Like his friend Weizmann, Meinertzhagen warns against “contact with the local Jew”, as the Middle East’s indigenous Jews remained overwhelmingly anti-Zionist.
See:
State of Terror, 25, 40, 45
