The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was the 1946 US-UK panel examining conditions for Jews in Mandatory Palestine. Through 2020 the opening said American opinions on Zionism itself were described as "largely indifferent and often anti-Semitic," quoting Truman calling Zionist circles "the usual European conspirators." Today the word survives twice in the body but is gone from the opening. A reader of today's opening does not learn that American officials' attitudes toward Zionism at the time were documented as often antisemitic.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “antisemitism” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 2.
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The opening as it read in 2020
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American committee assembled in Washington on 4 January 1946. The committee was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein; to consult representatives of Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations 'as may be necessary' to for ad interim handling of these problems as well as for their permanent solution.1 The report, entitled "Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry Regarding the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine" , was published in Lausanne on 20 April 1946. Truman had become president on 12 April of that year and in the United Kingdom Clement Attlee became Prime Minister on 5 July 1945 . Following the Harrison Report , on August 1945 president Truman asked Britain for admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine, beginning a negotiation on Palestine between the two powers. On 13 November 1945, Attlee's foreign minister Ernest Bevin announced the formation of the Anglo-American Commission. The British government suggested the joint inquiry in effort to secure American co-responsibility for a Palestinian policy, fearing Arab resistance to an influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine. The report dealt with five subjects: immigration, land, form of government, development, and security. It recommended the admission of 100,000 displaced Jews, the annulment of the Land Transfer Regulations restricting Jewish purchasing of Arab land set forth by White Paper of 1939 and that Palestine shall be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab state. The United States' decision to jointly lead the inquiry is considered to have been driven by a desire to "clip the wings of political Zionism by treating the whole matter as a Jewish refugee problem". Moshe Sneh of the Jewish Agency noted on 11 December 1945 at an Inner Meeting of the Jewish Agency that "America's agreement to participate in the Committee was undertaken in order to strip us of our main argument...with which to appeal to the Americans against an English committee... the introduction of America is tantamount to disarming us." Nachmani wrote that the decision to include Palestine into the committee's scope was also not in the best interests of the Zionists. The British had conditioned the implementation of the report's recommendations on the admission of 100,000 new Jewish immigrants contingent on US providing assistance in case of Arab revolt. It wasn't offered and the British government, continued to carry out its White Paper of 1939 policy. The plan was the base for " The Morrison-Grady Plan ", calling for federalization under overall British trusteeship. Ultimately this Committee plans' as well was rejected by both Arabs and Jews; and Britain decided to refer the problem to the United Nations. In America as a whole, the Palestine question was seen largely as a refugee question and not a Zionist issue. The term "refugee" had become negatively synonymous with the Jew. Post-war arrivals in the United States were described as conducting "cut-throat competition with Gentiles and established Jews alike in almost every field of U.S. economic lifc." Public opinion, therefore, resented the idea of a refugee invasion and demanded a reduction in immigration quotas. When an alternative such as Palestine was suggested support for it was massive, although U.S. opinions on Zionism itself were described as "largely indifferent and often anti-Semitic." More than once, Truman was known to pour the strongest insults on Zionist circles: "These people are the usual European conspirators." Or: "The Jes are like all the under-dogs. When they get on top they are just as intolerant and as cruel as the people were to them when they were underneath." Or: "How difficult it had been with so many Jews in New York." One should add to this the fact (very lucid to Britain's men in America, but not in Whitehall) that much of American feeling about Palestine stemmed more from hostility to Great Britain than it did from sympathy to Zionism. In all events, there is ample evidence that the United States, in accepting the idea of the AAC and then pressing for the inclusion of Palestine within its terms of reference, was not by any means succumbing to Zionist pressure, as Whitehall believed. Full support for Zionism was guaranteed as long as it was confined to theoretical policy making in the West. The experience of Great Britain had shown that as soon as the British came to Palestine, the Balfour Declaration was devalued. When America revealed an interest in the Near East, political Zionism was seen as a refugee problem. But when, later, the AAC visited Palestine, they began to realize that "the Arabs are not all sheiks or fellahin." Against this background, one can explain why Abba Hillel Silver suspected a "trap" when he heard that America would be looking into the situation in Palestine at close hand, through the AAC. While there was some chance that the AAC would support the Zionist cause while in America and England, there was little chance of their maintaining that support once they reached Palestine. According at a Jewish Agency source, numerically "in America the Jews are strong, ...in Palestine, it's the other way round." There was also the evidence of the delegation of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs which had visited Palestine in October 1945 and concluded after a few interviews that through refusal to face up to the basic facts in the perplexing Palestine problem, it would be unfair to all concerned-especially to the persecuted Jews...to simply dump thousands of defenceless Jewish immigrants into Palestine...to run the hazards of new abuses."2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 951983311.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American attempt in 1946 to agree upon a policy as regards the admission of Jews to Palestine . The Committee was tasked to consult representative Arabs and Jews on the problems of Palestine, and to make other recommendations 'as may be necessary' to the British and American governments. The Committee's recommendations addressed the matter of immigration and the future government of Palestine. Although one of many committees of inquiry which examined the situation in Palestine, the Anglo-American committee was the only one to also examine the conditions of Jews in Europe.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 367587732.
The opening as it stood in 2015 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American committee assembled in Washington on 4 January 1946.The Committee was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein; to consult representatives of Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations 'as may be necessary' to for ad interim handling of these problems as well as for their permanent solution.The report, entitled "Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry Regarding the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine" , was published in Lausanne on 20 April 1946.The British government suggested the joint inquiry in effort to secure American co-responsibility for a Palestinian policy, fearing Arab resistance to an in-flux of Jewish immigrants into Palestine.The report dealt with five subjects: immigration, land, form of government, development, and security.It recommended the admission of 100,000 displaced Jews, the annulment of the Land Transfer Regulations restricting Jewish purchasing of Arab land set forth by White Paper of 1939 and that Palestine shall be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab state.The British had conditioned the implementation of the report's recommendations on the admission of 100,000 new Jewish immigrants contingent on US providing assistance in case of Arab revolt.It wasn't offered and the British government, continued to carry out its White Paper of 1939 policy.The plan was the base for "The Morrison Grady Plan", calling for federalization under overall British trusteeship.Ultimately this Committee plans' as well was rejected by both Arabs and Jews; and Britain decided to refer the problem to the United Nations.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 661353479.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 12 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American committee assembled in Washington, D.C. , on 4 January 1946. The committee was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine and the well-being of the peoples now living there; to consult representatives of Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations 'as may be necessary' to for ad interim handling of these problems as well as for their permanent solution. The report, entitled "Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry Regarding the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine" , was published in Lausanne on 20 April 1946. Truman had become president on 12 April of that year and in the United Kingdom Clement Attlee became Prime Minister on 5 July 1945 . Following the Harrison Report , in August 1945 president Truman asked Britain for admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine, beginning a negotiation on Palestine between the two powers. On 13 November 1945, Attlee's foreign minister Ernest Bevin announced the formation of the Anglo-American Commission. The British government suggested the joint inquiry in effort to secure American co-responsibility for a Palestinian policy, fearing Arab resistance to an influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine. The report dealt with five subjects: immigration, land, form of government, development, and security. It recommended the admission of 100,000 displaced Jews, the annulment of the Land Transfer Regulations restricting Jewish purchasing of Arab land set forth by White Paper of 1939 and that Palestine shall be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab state. The United States' decision to jointly lead the inquiry is considered to have been motivated by a desire to "clip the wings of political Zionism by treating the whole matter as a Jewish refugee problem". Moshe Sneh of the Jewish Agency noted on 11 December 1945 at an Inner Meeting of the Jewish Agency that "America's agreement to participate in the Committee was undertaken in order to strip us of our main argument...with which to appeal to the Americans against an English committee... the introduction of America is tantamount to disarming us." Nachmani wrote that the decision to include Palestine into the committee's scope was also not in the best interests of the Zionists. The British had conditioned the implementation of the report's recommendations on the admission of 100,000 new Jewish immigrants contingent on US providing assistance in case of Arab revolt. It wasn't offered and the British government, continued to carry out its White Paper of 1939 policy. The plan was the base for " The Morrison-Grady Plan ", calling for federalization under overall British trusteeship. Ultimately this Committee plans' as well was rejected by both Arabs and Jews; and Britain decided to refer the problem to the United Nations.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178067136.
The opening as it stood in 2025
British and American committee to examine conditions in Mandatory Palestine The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American committee assembled in Washington, D.C. , on 4 January 1946. The committee was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine and the well-being of the peoples now living there; to consult representatives of Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations "as may be necessary" for ad interim handling of these problems as well as for their permanent solution. The report, entitled "Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry Regarding the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine" , was published in Lausanne , Switzerland on 20 April 1946. Truman had become president on 12 April of that year and in the United Kingdom Clement Attlee became Prime Minister on 5 July 1945 . Following the Harrison Report , in August 1945 president Truman asked Britain for admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine, beginning a negotiation on Palestine between the two powers. On 13 November 1945, Attlee's foreign minister Ernest Bevin announced the formation of the Anglo-American Commission. The British government suggested the joint inquiry in effort to secure American co-responsibility for a Palestinian policy, fearing Arab resistance to an influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine. The report dealt with five subjects: immigration, land, form of government, development, and security. It recommended the admission of 100,000 displaced Jews, the annulment of the Land Transfer Regulations restricting Jewish purchasing of Arab land set forth by White Paper of 1939 and that Palestine shall be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab state. The United States' decision to jointly lead the inquiry is considered to have been motivated by a desire to "clip the wings of political Zionism by treating the whole matter as a Jewish refugee problem". Moshe Sneh of the Jewish Agency noted on 11 December 1945 at an Inner Meeting of the Jewish Agency that "America's agreement to participate in the Committee was undertaken in order to strip us of our main argument...with which to appeal to the Americans against an English committee... the introduction of America is tantamount to disarming us." Nachmani wrote that the decision to include Palestine into the committee's scope was also not in the best interests of the Zionists. The British had conditioned the implementation of the report's recommendations on the admission of 100,000 new Jewish immigrants contingent on US providing assistance in case of Arab revolt. It wasn't offered and the British government continued to carry out its White Paper of 1939 policy. The plan was the base for " The Morrison-Grady Plan ", calling for federalization under overall British trusteeship. Ultimately this Committee plans' as well was rejected by both Arabs and Jews; and Britain decided to refer the problem to the United Nations.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1297275988. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“antisemitism” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 2. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
antisemitism
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2010 and 2025.
Then
joint british and american attempt in 1946 to agree upon a policy as regards the admission of jews to palestine
Now
joint british and american committee assembled in washington
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
