A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Week 3: Palestine Under the British Mandate

The British Mandate

• • • • • • Balfour Declaration, 1917 British occupation of Palestine after WW1 Britain acquire mandate from San Remo Conference Endorsed by League of Nations Based on the terms of Balfour Declaration Transjordan separated from Mandate in 1921

San Remo Conference, April 1920

The Palestine Mandate Triangle

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Britain

Strategic Importance of Palestine • Imperial Prestige • Maintain law and order •

Zionists

Establish a Jewish • • Home/state Land sales Immigration • Believe Britain diluting its mandate obligations •

Palestinian Arabs

• Rejection of Jewish Immigration • Demand end to land sales Dispute the legitimacy of term of British Mandate • Believe Britain acting on Zionist interests

Zionists under British Rule

• • • • • • • • Jewish Agency established in 1929 Took over functions of the Zionist Commission Jewish Agency Executive served as a cabinet 4 additional departments: Government (foreign affairs), Education, Security, Aliyah (immigration) Histadrut, created in 1920 Haganah, established in 1920 Opposition: Revisionist Zionist alliance (1925) and New Zionist Organization (1935) Armed groups: Irgun (1931) and LEHI or Stern Group (1940)

Golda Meir, head of Histadrut political department Ze’ev Jabotinsky, NZO

Palestinians Under British Rule

• • • • • • • Palestinians reject British offer of Arab Agency Led by Hajj Amin Al-Husseini who British appoint Grand Mufti Supreme Muslim Council, led by Husseini Husseinis rivalry with Nashashibis, who constitute the “opposition” Arab Executive, replaced by Higher Arab Committee (1936-37, 1946-48) Palestinian politics dominated by notables Some political parties established, such as Istiqlal (1932); Youth Congress (1934); Arab Palestinian Party (1935)

Herbert Samuel First British High Commissioner Hajj Amin Al-Husseini

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The Warring Twenties: Disturbances and British Responses

Outbreaks of Jewish-Arab violence, 1920 Prompts founding of Haganah 1921 Jaffa riots leave 47 Jews and 48 Arabs dead The “Churchill” White Paper of 1922, clarifying British rule in Palestine and nature of Jewish home 1929 “Wailing Wall” Riots, 67 Jews dead in Hebron British launch commissions to investigate – Shaw Commission and Hope Simpson Reports 1930 Passfield White Paper (not implemented) Palestine population in 1928 = 590,000 Arabs, 150,000 Jews

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The Road to Revolt and after

By 1936 population = 800,000 Arabs and 400,000 Jews Izz ad-Din al-Qassam killed by the British in 1935 Arab Revolt launched in 1936. Brutally repressed. 5,000 Arabs , 400 Jews dead by 1939 Arab leadership collapses. Grand Mufti expelled. Arab society does not fully recover Haganah trained by Orde Wingate in 1938 through his Special Night Squads. Peel Commission visits Palestine in 1937. Report calls for partition. Rejected by Arabs 1939 British White Paper limits immigration and land sales to Jews, independence in 10 years.

The Palestine Mandate During WWII

• • • • • • • • • • Grand Mufti exiled Zionist illegal immigration after the 1939 White Paper Biltmore Program of 1942 Lehi and Irgun launch campaign against British in 1944, assassinations and bombings Assassination of Lord Moyne in Egypt Beginning of “Hunting Season” against Irgun and Lehi May 1945: WW2 in Europe ends Labour Government elected in Britain The shock of the Jewish Holocaust Jewish displaced persons (DPs) problem

David Ben Gurion:

“We must assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper and we must resist the White Paper as if there were no war.”