In May 1939, the British government issued the ”White Paper,” a policy report determining limitations on the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. This act symbolized, more than any other, the deterioration of British sympathy for the idea of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine and was contrary to a promise made by the League of Nations. In September of that year, World War II broke out. These two events, in effect, shaped the history of the Jewish settlement in Palestine up until the establishment of the State of Israel. In spite of the “White Paper,” illegal immigration to Palestine continued, even though the numbers were limited by the outbreak of the War. Those who were caught by the British were sent to detention camps in Mauritius and Cyprus. Resistance to the British Mandate also weakened during the war, and approximately 30,000 Jewish volunteers from Eretz Israel and abroad served in the British Army on the European Front. Following the war in 1945, the Jewish settlement in Palestine renewed its opposition against British rule and the three resistance movements — the Haganah, Lechi and Etzel (Irgun) — began to attack British Army installations. As a consequence, the British arrested 2,700 freedom fighters on the “Black Sabbath”, among them a number of the Yishuv leaders. Some were imprisoned in Latrun, while others were deported to internment camps in Africa. The Etzel underground responded with a vengeance and blew up the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where administrative personnel of the British Mandatory government were housed. In February 1947, the British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin announced in Parliament that, since the British had failed to provide a solution, the future of Palestine would be determined in the United Nations. On 29.11.1947, the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel.