In 1218, England was the first European country to require Jews to wear badges. In 1290, King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion, driving all Jews out. It was the first permanent, state-level ban on Jews in Europe. Edward chose Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning for the Temple. That was likely no coincidence.
Centuries later, official change arrived. Jews were not officially allowed back for 366 years, until Cromwell let some families resettle in London in 1656. Their return was gradual and unofficial. This marked the beginning of modern Jewish life in England.
William the Conqueror brought Jews to England in 1066 because Christian law banned lending with interest. The economy needed lenders, and Jews filled that role. The Crown taxed them heavily until Edward’s reign, by which time they had little left. In 1290, Edward needed a war tax approved, so he offered the expulsion of Jews in exchange. Parliament agreed. Edward got £116,000—the era’s largest tax.
Jews were valuable to the Crown until political priorities shifted. Then they became bargaining chips.
That transaction set a precedent for Europe. The fact that Spain’s 1492 expulsion echoed England’s edict shows how such policies can spread, with Edward I setting the template for state-sponsored Antisemitism.
Six centuries on, the pattern endures, the names and circumstances change. The mechanism, however, does not.
In 1917, Britain made a formal promise—the Balfour Declaration—to help create a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. This was an official government pledge, not just a casual suggestion.
By 1939, Britain reversed its commitment at a crucial moment. The White Paper’s restriction on Jewish immigration came as Jews across Europe faced deadly persecution. Despite knowing the risk, Britain prioritized policy over lives—an action with tragic consequences.
A famous example is the Exodus of 1947. In July, 4,500 Jewish refugees tried to reach Palestine by ship. Britain stopped them, made them anchor in Haifa, and removed the passengers. Britain sent them back to Germany, sparking global outrage. British marines used clubs to force most off the ships. Many returned to camps in British-controlled Germany, some of which had been labor or concentration camps.
These people were not combatants. They were survivors of the Holocaust.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary at the time, Ernest Bevin, had already told a Labor Party conference that American pressure to admit Jewish refugees into Palestine existed because Americans “do not want too many Jews in New York.” His own junior Foreign Office minister wrote privately in May 1948: “There is no doubt in my mind that Ernest detests Jews. He says they taught Hitler the techniques of terror and were even now paralleling the Nazis in Palestine.”
That’s not a political opponent’s characterization. That’s Bevin’s own colleague writing in a private diary.
In May 1948, after Israel declared independence and was attacked, the Arab Legion, led by British officer John Bagot Glubb, captured Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter, expelled residents, and destroyed synagogues. Britain maintained an arms embargo on Israel, while Jordan’s forces used British weapons, training, and leaders. Britain was actively involved.
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