(Redirected from British Mandate Palestine)
The 'British Mandate for Palestine', sometimes referred to as the ''Mandate of Palestine'', was a system of government in the
Middle East from 1920 to 1948, over the former Turkish provinces of Palestine, Iraq and Syria - territory that now comprises modern-day
Jordan,
Israel, the
West Bank and the
Gaza Strip. Great Britain was awarded the Mandate for Palestine after World War I by the
League of Nations. Its purpose was to oversee the administration of Germany's former overseas possessions and parts of the defunct
Ottoman Empire, which had been in control since the 16th century, "until such time as they are able to stand alone." (
[1]) The borders of the Mandate for Palestine extended from the
Mediterranean Sea to the West, the
French Mandate of Lebanon,
French Mandate of Syria, and the
British Mandate of Mesopotamia to the North, the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the East and South, and the
Kingdom of Egypt to the Southwest.
British victories during World War I and
years of delay before formal treaties were ratified left the bulk of this territory under British military occupation from 1917 to 1920.
The
San Remo conference was an international meeting of the post-
World War I Allied Supreme Council, held in
San Remo,
Italy, in
19-
26 April 1920. It determined the allocation of Class "A"
League of Nations mandates for administration of the former
Ottoman-ruled lands of the
Middle East.
The decisions of the conference mainly confirmed those of the First
Conference of London (February 1920), and broadly reaffirmed the terms of the Anglo-French
Sykes-Picot Agreement of
16 May 1916 for the region's partition and the
Balfour Declaration of
2 November 1917.
[2] Britain received the mandate for
Palestine and
Iraq, while France gained control of
Syria including present-day
Lebanon.
After the San Remo Conference the British government placed Palestine under civil rule, in anticipation of the granting of a formal
League of Nations Mandate. The Mandate was approved in July 1922 and came into effect in September 1923. In April 1921, before the Mandate came into effect in September 1923, Britain created an autonomous political division called the Emirate of Transjordan in a part of what would become the Mandate Territory of Palestine. Accordingly, the objectives set out in the British Mandate for Palestine did not apply to what became
Transjordan.
The League explicitly tasked the British with recognizing "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country" and “secur[ing] the establishment of the Jewish national home” while simultaneously safeguarding "the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine.”
[3]
The precise geographical boundaries of the Mandate, and whether or not it was wholly intended to become a "Jewish National Home" have historically been disputed, with conflicting and shifting British promises to Jewish and Arab interests made in the
Balfour Declaration of 1917, the
Sykes-Picot Agreement, the
Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, and the
Churchill White Paper, 1922. Territory under British control east of the
Jordan River was formed in September 1922 into a separate administration known as
Transjordan. Transfer of authority to an Arab government in Transjordan took place gradually, starting with the recognition of a local administration in 1923 and transfer of most administrative functions in 1928. Britain retained mandatory authority over the region until it became fully independent as the
Hashemite Kingdom of Trans-Jordan in 1946.
The territory west of the Jordan remained under British administration until 1948. Following
World War II, the
United Nations succeeded the
League of Nations as overseer of Mandate territories, and took up the question of Jewish and Arab self-government in the Mandate. On
September 30,
1947, Britain decided to terminate the British mandate of Palestine, later setting the withdrawal date of
May 15,
1948.
[Brown, Judith, and W.M. Roger Lewis, eds. ''The Oxford History of the British Empire'', Vol IV. "The Twentieth Century," p. 336. See:[2]] Subsequently, a majority of the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under
international administration, and on
November 29,
1947 the UN General Assembly voted 33 to 13 in favor of the
1947 UN Partition Plan.
The partition plan was rejected out of hand by the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs, by the
Arab League, and by most of the Arab population. Most of the Jews accepted the proposal, in particular the
Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation. The British refused to implement any parts of the Plan deemed unacceptable by either side, and refused to co-administer the Mandate with the UN Commission. Jewish leaders declared the independent State of Israel the day prior to British withdrawal, on
14 May 1948, and the ensuing
1948 Arab-Israeli War ended with the former mandatory territory controlled by the State of Israel, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Kingdom of Egypt.
Early History
Ancient to modern history
Main articles: History of Palestine,
History of ancient Israel and Judah
This territory was inhabited by the
Canaanites, then the
Israelites, and then it became part of the
Babylonian,
Persian,
Greek and
Roman Empires with periods of independence or
autonomy for the Jews. When the Roman Empire split, the region was ruled by the
Eastern Roman Empire, also called the
Byzantine Empire. After that it was ruled by the
Sassanians,
Omayyads,
Crusaders and
Mamelukes, and then by the
Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1922.
The Ottomans gained control of the Middle East under
Selim I (1465–1520), and incorporated the region into an
administrative unit, the ''
eyalet'' of Syria. The name "Palestine" disappeared as the official name of an administrative unit, and much of the region became part of the''
vilayet'' (
province) of Damascus-Syria until 1660, then the ''vilayet'' of
Saida (Sidon), briefly interrupted by the 7 March 1799–July 1799
French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea. On
10 May 1832 it was one of the Turkish provinces annexed by
Muhammad Ali's briefly imperialistic Egypt (nominally still Ottoman), but in November 1840 direct Ottoman rule was restored.
World War I
General Allenby's final attacks of the Palestine Campaign gave Britain control of the area by driving out the Ottomans.
Before the end of
World War I, the British, in the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign under
General Allenby and the
Arab Revolt stirred up by the intelligence officer
T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in 1917 and occupied Palestine and Syria. The land was administered by the British for the remainder of the war. The British military administration ended starvation with the aid of food supplies from Egypt, successfully fought
typhus and
cholera epidemics and significantly improved the water supply to
Jerusalem. They reduced corruption by paying the Arab and Jewish judges higher salaries. Communications were improved by new railway and telegraph lines.
During World War I the British had made two promises regarding territory in the Middle East. Britain had promised the local
Arabs, through Lawrence, independence for a united Arab country covering most of the Arab Middle East, in exchange for their supporting the British; and Britain had promised to create and foster a
Jewish national home as laid out in the
Balfour Declaration, 1917. The British had, in the
Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, previously promised the
Hashemite family lordship over most land in the region in return for their support. At the same time, British interest in
Zionism dates to the rise in importance of the British Empire’s South Asian enterprises in the early 19th century, concurrent with "
the Great Game" and planning for the
Suez Canal. Eminent British figures such as
Queen Victoria,
King Edward VII,
Lloyd George,
Lord Palmerston and
Arthur Balfour were among the enthusiastic proponents of Zionism.
In October British forces in Syria and the last British soldiers stationed east of the Jordan were withdrawn and the region was under exclusive control of
Faisal bin Hussein from Damascus.
[4]
On
November 23 1918, a military edict was issued dividing Ottoman territories into occupied enemy territories (OET). The Middle East would be divided into three OETs, and OET-South extended from the Egyptian border of Sinai into Palestine and Lebanon as far north as
Acre and
Nablus and as tar east as the River Jordan. A temporary British military governor (General Moony) would administer this sector.
[5][6][7] At that time General Allenby assured Amir Faisal "that the Allies were in honour bound to endeavour to reach a settlement in accordance with the wishes of the peoples concerned and urged him to place his trust whole-heartedly in their good faith."
[8]
Interwar period
Borders, legal status, and administration to 1923
Zones of French and British influence and control proposed in the Sykes-Picot Agreement
In the
Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, Britain and France had proposed to divide the Middle East between them into spheres of influence, with "Palestine" as an international enclave.
[9] In a meeting at
Deauville in 1919,
David Lloyd George and
Georges Clemenceau revised this agreement, with Palestine and the
Vilayet of Mosul in modern-day
Iraq falling into the British sphere in exchange for British support of French influence in Syria and Lebanon.
[10] According to historian Ilan Pappe,
"The borders of mandatory Palestine, first drawn up in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, were given their definitive shape during lengthy and tedious negotiations by British and French officials between 1919 and 1922...In October 1919 the British envisaged the area that is today southern Lebanon and most of southern Syria as being part of British mandatory Palestine...In the East, matters were more complicated...[Transjordan] was part of the Ottoman province of Damascus which in the Sykes-Picot agreement had been allocated to the French."[11]
At the
San Remo Conference (19–
26 April 1920) the Allied Supreme Council granted the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia to Britain without precisely defining the boundaries of the mandated territories.
[4][13] Although the land east of the Jordan had been part of the Syrian administrative unit under the Ottomans, it was excluded from the French Mandate at the San Remo conference, "on the grounds that it was part of Palestine."
[14]
Regardless of the territorial boundaries, from an administrative standpoint, the 1947
UNSCOP report in the ''Official Records of the Second Session of the [United Nations] General Assembly'' noted: "Following its occupation by British troops in 1917–1918, Palestine had been controlled by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration of the United Kingdom Government. Anticipating the establishment of the Mandate, the United Kingdom Government, as from 1 July 1920, replaced the military with a civilian administration, headed by a High Commissioner ultimately responsible to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in Great Britain."
[15][16] David Lloyd George approved the appointment of
Herbert Samuel as this High Commissioner. Samuel arrived in Palestine on
June 20 1920, and complied with a demand from the head of the military administration, General Sir
Louis Bols, that he sign a receipt for ‘one Palestine, complete’: Samuel famously added the common commercial escape clause, ‘E&OE’ (errors and omissions excepted).
[17]
French war in Syria and separation of Transjordan
At the
Battle of Maysalun on
23 July 1920 the French removed the newly-proclaimed nationalist government of
Hashim al-Atassi and expelled
King Faisal from Syria. British Foreign Secretary
Earl Curzon wrote to Samuel in August 1920, stating, "I suggest that you should let it be known forthwith that in the area south of the [Sykes-Picot] line, we will not admit French authority and that our policy for this area to be independent but in closest relations with Palestine."
[18] Samuel replied to Curzon, "After the fall of Damascus a fortnight ago...Sheiks and tribes east of Jordan utterly dissatisfied with Shareefian Government most unlikely would accept revival"
[19] and subsequently announced that Transjordan was under British Mandate.
[20] Without authority from London Samuel then visited Transjordan and at a meeting with 600 leaders in Salt announced the independence of the area from Damascus and its absorption into the mandate, quadrupling the area under his control. Samuel assured his audience that Transjordan would not be merged with Palestine.
[21] The foreign secretary,
Lord Curzon, repudiated Samuel's action.
Subsequently, Faisal's brother Abdullah arrived in
Ma'an in southern Transjordan with 2000 followers announcing his intention to retake Syria from the French.
[22]
The Palestine Ensign, flown by ships registered in the Mandate territory, 1927–1948
Ratification procedure
According to the Council of the League of Nations, meeting of August 1920 (p109–110): "draft mandates adopted by the Allied and Associated Powers would not be definitive until they had been considered and approved by the League ... the legal title held by the mandatory Power must be a double one: one conferred by the Principal Powers and the other conferred by the League of Nations,"
[23] and three steps were required to establish a Mandate under international law:
(1) The Principal Allied and Associated Powers confer a mandate on one of their number or on a third power; (2) the principal powers officially notify the council of the League of Nations that a certain power has been appointed mandatory for such a certain defined territory; and (3) the council of the League of Nations takes official cognisance of the appointment of the mandatory power and informs the latter that it [the council] considers it as invested with the mandate, and at the same time notifies it of the terms of the mandate, after assertaining whether they are in conformance with the provisions of the covenant."
1922 White Paper
In March 1921 Colonial secretary, Winston Churchill, visited Jerusalem and after discussion with Abdullah accepted Transjordan into the mandatory area with the proviso that it would be under the nominal rule of the emir Abdullah (initially for six months) and would not form part of the Jewish national home to be established west of the River Jordan
, and on
June 3, 1922 the
Churchill White Paper, 1922 stated explicitly that "the terms of the [Balfour] Declaration referred to do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded `in Palestine.'"
A stamp from Palestine under the British Mandate
League of Nations ratifies legal Mandate
In June 1922 the League of Nations approved the Palestine Mandate, to come into effect when a dispute between France and Italy over the Syria Mandate was settled. That occurred in September 1923. According to the League of Nations ''Official Journal', "the mandates for Palestine and Syria would now enter into force automatically and at the same time."
[25] The Palestine Mandate was an explicit document regarding Britain's responsibilities and powers of administration in Palestine including recognizing "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country" and “secur[ing] the establishment of the Jewish national home” while safeguarding "the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine” and "political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”.
The document defining Britain’s obligations as Mandate power copied the text of the Balfour Declaration concerning the establishment of a Jewish national home:
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
Many articles of the document specified actions in support of Jewish immigration and political status. However, it was also stated that in the large, mostly arid, territory to the east of the
Jordan River, then called
Transjordan, Britain could ‘postpone or withhold’ application of the provisions dealing with the 'Jewish National Home'. In September 1922, the British government presented a memorandum to the League of Nations stating that Transjordan would be excluded from all the provisions dealing with Jewish settlement, and this memorandum was approved on
23 September. From that point onwards, Britain administered the part west of the Jordan as Palestine (which was 23% of the entire territory), and the part east of the Jordan as Transjordan (constituting 77% of the mandated territories). Technically they remained one mandate but most official documents referred to them as if they were two separate mandates. Transjordan remained under British control until 1946.
The boundary between the forthcoming
British and
French mandates was defined in broad terms by the
Franco-British Boundary Agreement of December 1920
[26]. That agreement placed the bulk of the Golan Heights in the French sphere. The treaty also established a joint commission to settle the precise details of the border and mark it on the ground.
The commission submitted its final report on
February 3,
1922, and it was approved with some caveats by the British and French governments on
March 7,
1923, several months before Britain and France assumed their Mandatory responsibilities on
29 September 1923.
[27][FSU Law.] In accordance with the same process, a nearby parcel of land that included the ancient site of
Dan was transferred from Syria to Palestine early in 1924. The Golan Heights thus became part of the
French Mandate of Syria.
American President
Woodrow Wilson protested British concessions in a cable to the British Cabinet.
[28]
When the French Mandate of Syria ended in 1944, The Golan Heights became part of the newly independent state of Syria.
In October 1923, Britain provided the League with two reports on the administration of Palestine and Iraq for the period 1920–1922. The Secretary General's statement accepting the reports says: "The mandate for Palestine only came into force on
September 29 1923. The two reports cover periods previous to the application of the mandates."
[29]
Immigration
According to official records, 367,845 Jews and 33,304 non-Jews immigrated legally between 1920 and 1945.
[30] It was estimated that another 50–60,000 Jews and a small number of non-Jews immigrated illegally during this period.
[31] Immigration accounts for most of the increase of Jewish population, while the non-Jewish population increase was largely natural. These figures have been supported by later studies
[32], though estimates of Arab immigration have been disputed.
[33]
Initially, Jewish immigration to Palestine met little opposition from the
Palestinian Arabs. However, as
anti-Semitism grew in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigration (mostly from
Europe) to Palestine began to increase markedly, creating much Arab resentment.
There was violent incitement from the Palestine Muslim leadership that led to violent attacks against the Jewish population. In some cases, land purchases by the Jewish agencies from absentee landlords led to the eviction of the Palestinian Arab tenants, who were replaced by the Jews of the
kibbutzim.
The
British government placed limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine. These quotas were controversial, particularly in the latter years of British rule, and both
Arabs and
Jews disliked the policy, each side for its own reasons. In response to numerous Arab attacks on Jewish communities, the
Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary organization, was formed on
June 15,
1920 to defend Jewish residents. Tensions led to widespread violent disturbances on several occasions, notably in 1921, 1929 (primarily violent attacks by Arabs on Jews — see
Hebron) and 1936–1939. Beginning in 1936, several Jewish groups such as
Etzel (Irgun) and
Lehi (Stern Gang) conducted their own campaigns of violence against British military and Arab targets. This prompted the British government to label them both as
terrorist organizations.
Infrastructure and development
From the 1920s to the start of the Second World War, the Mandate territory underwent enormous economic and cultural development. The institutions founded in this period included an elected assembly, the ''Asefat Hanivharim'', the National Council for welfare, education, and religious service ''Vaad Leumi'' in 1920, a centralized Hebrew school system in 1919, the
Histadrut labor federation in 1920, the
Technion university in 1924, and the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925.
[34]
Jewish immigration was controlled by the ''
Histadrut'', which selected between applicants on the grounds of their political creed. Land purchased by Jewish agencies was leased on the conditions that it be worked only by Jewish labor and that the lease should not be held by non-Jews.
Great Uprising
Main articles: 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
In 1937, the
Peel Commission proposed a partition between Jewish and Arab areas. The proposal was rejected by the Arabs and by the
Zionist Congress (by 300 votes to 158) but accepted by the latter as a basis for negotiations between the Executive and the British Government.
[35][36]
In 1936–1939 the mandate experienced an upsurge in militant Arab nationalism that became also known as "the Great Uprising." The revolt was triggered by increased Jewish immigration, primarily Jews that escaped the
Nazi regime in Germany as well as rising anti-Semitism throughout Europe. The revolt was led or co-opted by the Grand Mufti,
Haj Amin Al-Husseini and his Husseini family. The Arabs felt they were being marginalized in their own country, but in addition to non-violent strikes, they resorted to violence, committing numerous attacks on Jewish civilians including rioting and massacres in
1921,
1929, and in the
late 1930s. The Jewish organization
Irgun used violence, with marketplace bombings and other massacres that also
killed hundreds. Eventually, the uprising was put down by the British using severe measures. Haj Amin El Husseini fled first to
Lebanon, then to
Iraq, and finally to
Germany in late 1941.
The
British placed restrictions on Jewish land purchases in the remaining land, directly contradicting the provisions of the Mandate. A similar proposal to limit immigration in 1931 had been termed a violation of the mandate by the League of Nations. According to the Israeli side, the British had by 1949 allotted over 8500 acres (34 km²) to Arabs, and about 4100 acres (16 km²) to Jews.
World War II and post-war end of Mandate
Allied and Axis activity
As in most of the Arab world, there was no unanimity amongst the Palestinian Arabs as to their position regarding the combatants in
WWII. Many signed up for the British army, but others saw an
Axis victory as a likely outcome and a way of securing Palestine back from the Zionists and the British. Some of the leadership went further, especially the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
Haj Amin Al-Husseini (who had by then escaped to Iraq), who on
November 25,
1941, formally declared ''
jihad'' against the Allied Powers seen as the occupiers.. Al-Husseini spent the rest of the war serving with the
Waffen SS in
Bosnia.
Even though Arabs were only marginally higher than Jews in
Nazi racial theory, the Nazis encouraged Arab support as much as possible as a counter to British hegemony throughout the Arab world.
[37]
Arabs who opposed the persecution of the Jews at the hand of the Nazis included
Habib Bourguiba in
Tunisia and
Egyptian intellectuals such as
Tawfiq al-Hakim and
Abbas Mahmoud al-Arkad. (Source:
Yad Vashem). The mandate recruited soldiers in Palestine. About 6,000 Palestinian Arabs joined the British forces and about 26,000 Jews.
In World War II, Italy, which in 1940 declared war on the British Commonwealth on Germany's side,
attacked Palestine from the air. In 1942 there was a period of anxiety for the
Yishuv, when the German forces of general
Erwin Rommel advanced east in
North Africa towards the
Suez Canal and there was fear that they would conquer Palestine. This period was referred to as the two hundred days of anxiety. This event was the direct cause for the founding, with British support, of the
Palmach[38] — a highly-trained regular unit belonging to
Haganah (which was mostly made up of reserve troops).
The Holocaust and Jewish immigration
The Holocaust had a major effect on the situation in Palestine. During the war, the British forbade entry into Palestine of European Jews escaping Nazi persecution, placing them in detention camps or deporting them to places such as
Mauritius.
[39] Avraham Stern, the leader of the Jewish
Lehi underground group, and other Zionists, tried to convince the Nazis to continue seeing emigration from Europe as the "solution" for their "Jewish problem", but, in response to Arab support and political pressure the Nazis abandoned this idea in favor of containment and physical extermination.
Starting in 1939, the Zionists organized an illegal immigration effort, known as
Aliya Beth, conducted by "
Hamossad Le'aliyah Bet", that rescued tens of thousands of European Jews from the Nazis by shipping them to Palestine in rickety boats. Many of these boats were intercepted. The last immigrant boat to try to enter Palestine during the war was the
Struma, torpedoed in the
Black Sea by a
Soviet submarine in February 1942. The boat sank with the loss of nearly 800 lives. Illegal immigration resumed after WW II.
Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet Zuri, members of the Jewish Lehi underground, assassinated
Lord Moyne in
Cairo on
6 November 1944. Moyne was the British Minister of State for the Middle East. The assassination is said by some to have turned British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill against the Zionist cause, but for
Lehi the priority was to allow Jewish refugees to enter the country and to establish the state on their own.
The British considered Arab support more important, because of their interests in
Egypt and control of oil production in
Iraq,
Kuwait and the
Emirates, and especially to guarantee the friendship of oil-rich
Saudi Arabia. The ban on immigration continued.
As a result of the assassination of
Lord Moyne, the
Haganah kidnapped, interrogated, and turned over to the British many members of the Irgun (ironically Lehi members were not harmed as a result of an understanding with Haganah, even though Lehi committed the assassination). This period is known as the '
Hunting Season'. Irgun ordered its members not to resist or retaliate with violence, so as to prevent a spiraling to civil war.
Following the war, 250,000 Jewish refugees were stranded in displaced persons (DP) camps in Europe. Despite the pressure of world opinion, in particular the repeated requests of US President
Harry S. Truman and the recommendations of the
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the British refused to lift the ban on immigration and admit 100,000 displaced persons to Palestine. The Jewish underground forces then united and carried out several attacks against the British. In 1946, the Irgun
blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the British administration, killing 92 people.
Following the bombing the British Government began interning
Jews in British camps on Cyprus.
The negative publicity resulting from the situation in Palestine, meant the mandate was widely unpopular in Britain and caused US Congress to delay granting the British vital loans for reconstruction. The Labour party had promised before it's election to allow mass Jewish migration into Palestine. Additionally the situation required maintenance of large numbers of war-weary troops in the country (this was funded by taxing the Jewish community). In response to these pressures the British announced their desire to terminate the mandate and withdraw by May 1948.
United Nations Partition Plan
Main articles: 1947 UN Partition Plan
The UN Partition Plan.
The British
Peel Commission proposed a Palestine divided between a Jewish and an Arab State, but in time
changed their position and sought to limit Jewish immigration from Europe to a minimum. This was seen by Zionists and their sympathisers as betrayal of the terms of the mandate, especially in light of the
increasing persecution in Europe and was met with a popular uprising and guerilla war from Jewish militant groups, often viewed as one of several factors that led the British to hand the problem over to the
United Nations.
The UN, the successor to the
League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute, creating the
UNSCOP (UN Special Committee on Palestine) on
May 15 1947. After spending three months conducting hearings and general survey of the situation in Palestine, UNSCOP officially released its report on
August 31. A majority of nations (
Canada,
Czechoslovakia,
Guatemala,
Netherlands,
Peru,
Sweden,
Uruguay) recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under
international administration. A minority (
India,
Iran,
Yugoslavia) supported the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states.
Australia abstained. On
November 29, the UN General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, in favour of the Partition Plan, while making some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal. Both the
United States and
Soviet Union agreed on the resolution. In addition, pressure was exerted on some small countries by
Zionist sympathizers in the United States.
[ "Palestine". Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition, 2006. 15 May 2006.]
The partition plan was rejected out of hand by the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs and by most of the Arab population. Most of the Jews accepted the proposal, in particular the
Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation. Numerous records indicate the joy of Palestine's Jewish inhabitants as they attended the U.N. session voting for the division proposal. Up to this day, Israeli history books mention
29 November, the date of this session, as the most important date leading to the creation of the Israeli state.
Meeting in Cairo in November and December of 1947, the
Arab League then adopted a series of resolutions aimed at a military solution to the conflict. The
United Kingdom refused to implement the plan arguing it was not acceptable to both sides. It also refused to share with the UN Palestine Commission the administration of Palestine during the transitional period, and decided to terminate the Mandate on May 15th, 1948.
[ "Palestine". Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition, 2006. 15 May 2006.]
Several Jewish organizations also declined the proposal.
Menachem Begin, Irgun's leader, announced: "The partition of the homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature by institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. The Land of Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever". His views were publicly rejected by the majority of the nascent Jewish state.
Expiration of the Mandate and 1948 War
Main articles: 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Despite the approval of the partition plan, Britain continued to arrest and intern
Jews in British camps on Cyprus. The British mandate over Palestine was due to expire on
15 May 1948, but Jewish Leadership led by future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared independence on
14 May. The
State of Israel declared itself as an independent nation, and was quickly recognized by the
Soviet Union, the
United States, and many other countries. Over the next few days, approximately 1,000 Lebanese, 5,000 Syrian, 5,000 Iraqi, 10,000 Egyptian troops
invaded the newly-established state. Four thousand Transjordanian troops, commanded by 38 British officers who had resigned their commissions in the British army only weeks earlier (commanded by General
Glubb), invaded the
Corpus separatum region encompassing Jerusalem and its environs, as well as areas designated as part of the Arab state by the UN partition plan. They were aided by corps of volunteers from Saudi Arabia,
Libya and Yemen.
The
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel,
May 14 1948 stated:
''We appeal ... to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.''
In an official to the UN Secretary-General on
15 May 1948, the Arab states publicly proclaimed their aim of creating a "United State of Palestine" in place of the Jewish and Arab, two-state, UN Plan. They claimed the latter was invalid, as it was opposed by Palestine's Arab majority, and maintained that the absence of legal authority made it necessary to intervene to protect Arab lives and property.
[40]
On the date of British withdrawal the Jewish provisional government declared the formation of the State of Israel, and the provisional government said that it would grant full civil rights to all within its borders, whether Arab, Jew, Bedouin or Druze.
Mandatory borders and 1949 Armistice
Main articles: 1949 Armistice Agreements
British Mandate: Proposed 1947 partition borders and 1949 armistice lines; main differences are in light red and magenta.
Following the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, the State of Israel retained nearly all the territory that would have been assigned to it in the 1947 UN Partition Plan, as well as half of the land intended to become the Arab state of Palestine and a portion of the territory intended for international administration around Jerusalem. The remaining half of the land that had been intended to become Palestine along the
West Bank of the
Jordan River was annexed by Jordan, as was most of the Jerusalem enclave; the
Gaza Strip along the Mediterranean coast, also included in the Arab state territory, was captured by Egypt.
Population
Demographics, 1920
In 1920 the majority of the approximately 750,000 people in this multi-ethnic region were Arabic-speaking Muslims, including a Bedouin population (estimated at 103,331 at the time of the 1922 census
[41] and concentrated in the
Beersheba area and the region south and east of it), as well as
Jews (who comprised some 11% of the total) and smaller groups of
Druze, Syrians, Sudanese,
Circassians, Egyptians, Greeks, and
Hejazi Arabs.
In 1922 the British undertook the first census of the mandate. The population was 752,048, comprising 589,177 Muslims, 83,790 Jews, 71,464 Christians and 7,617 persons belonging to other groups. After a second census in 1931, the population had grown to 1,036,339 in total, comprising 761,922 Muslims, 175,138 Jews, 89,134 Christians and 10,145 people belonging to other groups. There were no further censuses but statistics were maintained by counting births, deaths and migration. Some components such as illegal immigration could only be estimated approximately. The
White Paper of 1939, which placed immigration restrictions on Jews, stated that the Jewish population "has risen to some 450,000" and was "approaching a third of the entire population of the country". In 1945 a demographic study showed that the population had grown to 1,764,520, comprising 1,061,270 Muslims, 553,600 Jews, 135,550 Christians and 14,100 people of other groups.
| Year | Total | Muslim | Jewish | Christian | Other |
|---|
| 1922 | 752,048 | 589,177(78%) | 83,790(11%) | 71,464(10%) | 7,617(1%) |
| 1931 | 1,036,339 | 761,922(74%) | 175,138(17%) | 89,134(9%) | 10,145(1%) |
| 1945 | 1,764,520 | 1,061,270(60%) | 553,600(31%) | 135,550(8%) | 14,100(1%) |
By district
The following table gives the demographics of each of the 16 districts of the Mandate.
| 'Demographics of Palestine by district as of 1945 ' |
| 'District' | 'Muslim' | 'Percentage' | 'Jewish' | 'Percentage' | 'Christian' | 'Percentage' | 'Total' |
| Acre | 51,130 | 69% | 3,030 | 4% | 11,800 | 16% | 73,600 |
| Beersheba | 6,270 | 90% | 510 | 7% | 210 | 3% | 7,000 |
| Beisan | 16,660 | 67% | 7,590 | 30% | 680 | 3% | 24,950 |
| Gaza | 145,700 | 97% | 3,540 | 2% | 1,300 | 1% | 150,540 |
| Haifa | 95,970 | 38% | 119,020 | 47% | 33,710 | 13% | 253,450 |
| Hebron | 92,640 | 99% | 300 | <1% | 170 | <1% | 93,120 |
| Jaffa | 95,980 | 24% | 295,160 | 72% | 17,790 | 4% | 409,290 |
| Jenin | 60,000 | 98% | Negligible | <1% | 1,210 | 2% | 61,210 |
| Jerusalem | 104,460 | 42% | 102,520 | 40% | 46,130 | 18% | 253,270 |
| Nablus | 92,810 | 98% | Negligible | <1% | 1,560 | 2% | 94,600 |
| Nazareth | 30,160 | 60% | 7,980 | 16% | 11,770 | 24% | 49,910 |
| Ramallah | 40,520 | 83% | Negligible | <1% | 8,410 | 17% | 48,930 |
| Ramle | 95,590 | 71% | 31,590 | 24% | 5,840 | 4% | 134,030 |
| Safad | 47,310 | 83% | 7,170 | 13% | 1,630 | 3% | 56,970 |
| Tiberias | 23,940 | 58% | 13,640 | 33% | 2,470 | 6% | 41,470 |
| Tulkarm | 76,460 | 82% | 16,180 | 17% | 380 | 1% | 93,220 |
| Total | 1,076,780 | 58% | 608,230 | 33% | 145,060 | 9% | 1,845,560 |
| Data from the Survey of Palestine[42] |
Land ownership of the British Mandate of Palestine
As of 1931, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine was 26,625,600
dunums, of which 8,252,900 dunums or 33% were cultivable.
[43]Official statistics show that Jews privately and collectively owned 1,393,531 dunums of land in 1945.
[44] Estimates of the total volume of land that Jews had acquired by
May 15,
1948 are complicated by illegal and unregistered land transfers, as well as by the lack of data on land concessions from the Palestine administration after
March 31,
1936.
[45] According to Avneri, Jews held 1,850,000 dunums of land in 1947.
[46] Stein gives the estimate of 2,000,000 dunums as of May 1948.
[47]
Land Ownership by district
The following table shows the land ownership of Palestine by district:
Land ownership by type
The land owned privately and collectively by Arabs and Jews can be classified as urban, rural built-on, cultivable (farmed), and uncultivable. The following chart shows the ownership by Arabs and Jews in each of the categories.
| 'Land ownership of Palestine (in dunums) as of April 1st, 1943 ' |
| 'Category of land' | 'Arab and other non-Jewish ownership' | 'Jewish ownership' | 'Total Land' | |||
| Urban | 76,662 | 70,111 | 146,773 | |||
| Rural built-on | 36,851 | 42,330 | 79,181 |
| Cereal (taxable) | 5,503,183 | 814,102 | 6,317,285 |
| Cereal (not taxable) | 900,294 | 51,049 | 951,343 |
| Plantation | 1,079,788 | 95,514 | 1,175,302 |
| Citrus | 145,572 | 141,188 | 286,760 |
| Banana | 2,300 | 1,430 | 3,730 |
| Uncultivable | 16,925,805 | 298,523 | 17,224,328 |
| 'Total' | 24,670,455 | 1,514,247 | 26,184,702 |
| Data is from Survey of Palestine.[42] |
Land Laws of Palestine
★ Ottoman Land Code of 1858
★ Land Transfer Ordinance of 1920
★ 1926 Correction of Land Registers Ordinance
★ Land Settlement Ordinance of 1928
★ Land Transfer Regulations of 1940
British Chief Administrators of Palestine
British High Commissioners for Palestine
See also
★
Ottoman Empire
★
Balfour Declaration 1917
★
★
Italian bombings on Palestine in World War II
★
1947 UN Partition Plan
★
Napoleon and a Jewish state in Palestine
★
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948
★
1948 Arab-Israeli War
★
Palestinian
★
Haganah
★
Irgun
★
Lehi (group)
★
Middle East conflict
★
Elon Peace Plan
★
Herbert Dowbiggin
★
Palestinian pound
★
Notes
1. "Mandate for Palestine," Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 11, p. 862, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1972
2. Under the Balfour Declaration the British government had undertaken to favour the reconstitution of a Jewish national home in Palestine without prejudice to the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
3. This is text of the Balfour Declaration (see [1]) that was incorporated into the Treaty of Sèvres and the League of Nations' grant of the Mandate to Britain.
4. Biger, 2005, p. 173.
5. Biger, 2005, p. 55, p. 164.
6. The others included Occupied Enemy Territories North (Lebanon) under the command of French Colonel De Piape and Occupied Enemy Territories East (Syria and Transjordan) under the command of Faisal's chief of staff General Ali Riza el-Riqqabi.
7. See also "The Armistice in the Middle East," in [3]
8. Report of a Committee Set up to Consider Certain Correspondence Between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca in 1915 and 1916, UNISPAL, Annex H.
9. Pappe, Ilan. ''The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947–1951'', I. B. Tauris; New Ed edition (August 15, 1994), p. 3.
10. Pappe, p. 3–4. Pappe suggests the French concessions were made to guarantee British support for French aims at the post-war peace conference concerning Germany and Europe.
11. Pappe, pp. 4–5.
12. Biger, 2005, p. 173.
13. Chaim Weizmann, subsequently reported to his colleagues in London: "There are still important details outstanding, such as the actual terms of the mandate and the question of the boundaries in Palestine. There is the delimitation of the boundary between French Syria and Palestine, which will constitute the northern frontier and the eastern line of demarcation, adjoining Arab Syria. The latter is not likely to be fixed until the Emir Feisal attends the Peace Conference, probably in Paris." See: 'Zionist Aspirations: Dr Weizmann on the Future of Palestine', ''The Times'', Saturday, 8 May, 1920; p. 15.
14. Aruri, Naseer Hasan. ''Jordan: A Study in Political Development 1923–1965''. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1972. p. 17.
15. ''Official Records of the Second Session of the General Assembly'', Supplement No. 11, United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, Report to the General Assembly, Volume 1. Lake Success, NY, 1947. A/364, 3 September 1947, Chapter II.C.68., at [4]
16. "in April 1920 the Allies decided that so far as the Arabic-speaking world was concerned they would implement the provisions of such a treaty [with Turkey] as they envisaged. Such action was of course, highly illegal...this irregular conduct was more public spirited than otherwise. It was the only sensible thing to do..." Christopher Sykes, ''Crossroads to Israel''
17. Bernard Wasserstein, ‘Samuel, Herbert Louis, first Viscount Samuel (1870–1963)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 21 April 2007.
18. Telegram from Earl Curzon to Sir Herbert Samuel, dated August 6, 1920, in Rohan Butler et al., Documents of British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, first series volume XIII London:Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1963, p. 331, cited in Aruri, p. 17
19. Telegram August 7 1920, in Rohan Butler et al., Documents of British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, first series volume XIII London:Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1963, p. 334, in Aruri, p. 18.
20. Aruri p. 18.
21. Aruri, 1972, p.18.
22. Aruri, 1972, p.19.
23. Quincy Wright, Mandates under the League of Nations, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1930.
24. See also: Temperley, History of the Paris Peace Conference, Vol VI, p505–506; League of Nations, The Mandates System (official publication of 1945); Hill, Mandates, Dependencies and Trusteeship, p133ff.
25. League of Nations Council minutes Sep 29, 1923, Official Journal, Nov 23, p1355
26. Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia, signed Dec. 23, 1920. Text available in ''American Journal of International Law'', Vol. 16, No. 3, 1922, 122–126.
27. Agreement between His Majesty's Government and the French Government respecting the Boundary Line between Syria and Palestine from the Mediterranean to El Hámmé, Treaty Series No. 13 (1923), Cmd. 1910. Also Louis, 1969, p. 90.
28. "The Zionist cause depends on rational northern and eastern boundaries for a self-maintaining, economic development of the country. This means, on the north, Palestine must include the Litani River and the watersheds of the Hermon, and on the east it must include the plains of the Jaulon and the Hauran. Narrower than this is a mutilation… I need not remind you that neither in this country nor in Paris has there been any opposition to the Zionist program, and to its realization the boundaries I have named are indispensable". Abelson, Meir, Palestine: The Original Sin.
29. League of Nations, Official Journal, Oct 1923, p1217.
30. A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, , , , Govt. printer, 1946,
31. Ibid., pp. 210: "Arab illegal immigration is mainly ... casual, temporary and seasonal". pp. 212: "The conclusion is that Arab illegal immigration for the purpose of permanent settlement is insignificant".
32. The population of Palestine: population history and statistics of the late Ottoman period and the Mandate, J. McCarthy, , , Darwin Press, 1995,
33. Gottheil, Fred M. "The Smoking Gun: Arab Immigration into Palestine, 1922–1931." ''Middle East Quarterly'', Winter 2003, Volume X, Number 1, at [5]
34. See: The Jewish Community under the Mandate
35. 'Zionists Ready To Negotiate British Plan As Basis', ''The Times'' Thursday, August 12, 1937; pg. 10; Issue 47761; col B.
36. Eran, Oded. "Arab-Israel Peacemaking." ''The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East''. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002, page 122.
37. Secret World War II documents released by the UK in July, 2001, include documents on an Operation Atlas (See References: KV 2/400–402. A joint German/Arab team, lead by Kurt Wieland, parachuted into Palestine in September 1944. This was one of the last German efforts in the region to attack the Jewish community in Palestine and undermine British rule by supplying local Arabs with cash, arms and sabotage equipment. The team was picked up shortly after landing.
38. How the Palmach was formed (History Central)
39. Karl Lenk, ''The Mauritius Affair, The Boat People of 1940/41'', London 1991
40. 'The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917–1988. Part II, 1947–1977.
41. "Hope Simpson report," October 1930, Chapter III, at [6]
42. A Survey of Palestine : Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, , , , Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991, ISBN 0-88728-211-3
43. Stein, p. 4
44. "Land Ownership in Palestine," CZA, KKL5/1878. The statistics were prepared by the Palestine Lands Department for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1945, ISA, Box 3874/file 1. See Khalaf (1991), pp. 26–27, Stein p. 226
45. Stein, pp. 246–247
46. Avneri p. 224
47. Stein, pp. 3–4, 247
48. Land Ownership of Palestine — Map prepared by the Government of Palestine on the instructions of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestine Question.
49. A Survey of Palestine : Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, , , , Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991, ISBN 0-88728-211-3
References
★
Bethell, Nicholas ''The Palestine Triangle : the Struggle Between the British, the Jews and the Arabs, 1935–48'', London : Deutsch, 1979 ISBN 023397069X.
★ Eini, Roza El- (2006). ''Mandated Landscape: British Imperial Rule in Palestine 1929–1948''. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714654264
★ Biger, Gideon (2005). ''The Boundaries of Modern Palestine'', 1840–1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714656542
★ Louis, Wm. Roger (1969). The United Kingdom and the Beginning of the Mandates System, 1919–1922. ''International Organization'', 23(1), pp. 73–96.
★
Application of Israeli law to the Golan Heights is annexation, Asher Maoz, , , Brooklyn journal of international law, 1994
★
Life under occupation in the Golan Heights, Tayseer Maar'i & Usama Halabi, , , Journal of Palestine Studies, 1992
★ Morris, Benny (2001) ''Righteous Victims'' New York, Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-74475-7.
★
June 1967: Israel's capture of the Golan Heights, Eyal Zisser, , , Israel Studies, 2002
★ Paris, Timothy J. (2003). ''Britain, the Hashemites and Arab Rule, 1920–1925: The Sherifian Solution''. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714654515
★
Segev, Tom (2000). ''One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate'', Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 0-8050-6587-3
★ Sherman, A J (1998).''Mandate Days: British Lives in Palestine, 1918–1948'', Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-8018-6620-0
★ Stein, Kenneth W. ''The Land Question in Palestine, 1917–1939''. University of North Carolina, 1984. ISBN 0-8078-1579-9
External links
★
Resources > Modern Period > 20th Cent. > History of Israel > Building a State > British Mandate (1917–1948)The Jewish History Resource Center, Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
★
Coins and Banknotes of Palestine under the British Mandate
★
Stamps of Palestine under the British Mandate
★
Legal Status of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem
★
A history of Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict
★
A history of Zionism and the creation of Israel
★
An Introduction to the Israel-Palestine Conflict by
Norman Finkelstein
★
Jewish Defense Organizations
★
United Nations
★
Map of Population Distribution by Ethnicity 1946
★
Population of Palestine before 1948
★
Map of Land Ownership in Palestine 1945
★
Facts about Palestine
★
British Servicemen and Police who died 1945–1948 — Database
★
The Jewish Community under the Mandate at Jewish Virtual Library .org
Primary sources
★
Yale Law School, Avalon Project, archive copy of the Palestine Mandate
★
Map of 1947 UN division
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