Group+5.4+British+Mandate+Palestine

British Mandate Palestine Group 5.4

Topics Discussed
 * //1. Early Influence - DR//
 * //- British publications//
 * //2. Political Groups and Activism - NP//
 * //3. League of Nations and transition to United Nations (early history) 1948 JP//
 * //4. Mandate government - DR//
 * //- Mayors working with British officials//
 * //- How did Britain control from afar.//
 * //5. The effects of international policies adopted, prior to, and during the British mandate of Palestine - AM//
 * //- Balfour Declaration//
 * //- Sykes-Picot Agreement//
 * //- White Papers//
 * //- UN General Resolution 181 (Partition Plan) DR and AM//


 * __ 1. Early Influence: A Call for Jewish Nationality __**

The debate over Jewish land in Palestine has been roaring in recent decades. Englishmen, however, have a history of discussion dating back to 1621. //The World’s Great Restauration or Calling of the Jews// was written by Sir Henry Finch. He wrote that Jews should make a claim for land ownership in Palestine, and Christian rulers should support them. He was imprisoned for his publication. Following generations saw the raising of funds to support the cause and publications similar to Finch’s. By the end of the seventeenth century, Cecil Roth had found and cited twelve publications that advocated a Jewish return to Palestine.

The issue starts to gain steam in the nineteenth century. France and Britain were battling to create empires. Napoleon had offered, in writing to restore a Jewish state. So, writers began to address the issue again. James Bicheno wrote and published in order to, “‘prepare the minds of [Englishmen] for the appearance of that event’” (Hyamson, 3). Two Scottish clergy were sent to Palestine to observe the situation and their writings were wildly popular upon return. Jews were beginning to feel anti-semetic pressure in European countries and people like Theodor Herzl, pictured below, began calling for Jewish nationality. Jewish Zionists saw Britain as a power that would be willing to support and protect them. Herzl appeals to British imperialism in an address to the International Zionist Congress in London. He said, “‘England, with her eyes roaming all over the seas, will understand us and our aims’” (Hyamson, 16). Dr. Chaim Weizmann would succeed Herzl as the leader of the Zionist movement in the twentieth century.

One reason Britain supported a national home for Judaism would be to gain Jewish support at a time when imperial powers were clashing. Historians also cite military strategy as a reason. Supporting a Jewish state would give Britain a reason to put boots on the ground in Palestine. That position would give them a good staging ground to protect the Suez Canal and establish a land bridge between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, which is a good way to maintain connection with British interest in India (Porath).



//Source:// Hyamson, Albert. __Palestine Under the Mandate__. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1976. Print.

//Source:// Porath, Yehoshua. “Tom Segev’s New Mandate.” Jewish Agency for Israel. 2000. 9 March 2011. Web.  -Reese

=**__2. Political Groups and Activism During the British Mandate__**=

The British Mandate for Palestine was founded through a League of Nations resolution giving Britain the role of governing affairs in the territory until such a time as the Palestinians were able to govern themselves. Of course, the initial provisions of the resolution were bent and molded to advantage the progression of goals and wishes held by various political groups. In this section we will touch upon the political and activist groups that were born, influenced, and affected by the British Mandate for Palestine.

Palestinian Nationals- After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the territory known as Palestine served as a home to millions of native arabs. Under the resolution passed in the League of Nations, these arabs were to be fostered into self-governance by way of the British guidance in the form of a Mandate. As Britain was seen as the protector and gaurantor of Palestinian government, Palestinian community and government leaders had to report to British statesmen. Though the Mandate only called for temporary governance of the territory, it was natural for the Palestinians to fear a long rule by Britain. Most importantly, the Palestinians were suspicious of the true British agenda in the Mandate, as collaboration with Zionist leaders was known by the arabs to be taking place. The arabs vehemently opposed the creation of a Jewish state in mandated Palestine, though, their wishes were not met. Written into the Mandate was a proposal that a Jewish National home be established. The large-scale migration of jews to Palestinian territory caused massive riots and uprising. Ultimately leading to stricter laws on immigration.

Zionists- The World Zionist Organization was an organization that aimed to further the acquisition of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. During the first World War, zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky pressed the British hard for provisions set in the Mandate that would allow for a Jewish homeland to be established. Their wishes were eventually met as the Mandate was created. Great conflict arose, though, as disputes between migrating jews and native arabs began to rise. The Zionists viewed the Palestinian territory as a historical right that was owed to the Jewish people. The Palestinians viewed the territory as an essential piece of their heritage as well, and did not appreciate outsiders influencing their rights to land and habitat. The zionists were limited in their ability to settle various areas of Palestine as bloody conflicts continued to rise.

Sources: http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_overview.php http://www.mideastweb.org/mandate.htm http://www.wrmea.com/jews_for_justice/mandate.html

Nathan Piette


 * __ 3. League of Nations and transition to United Nations __**

The original drafting of the British Mandate for Palestine was formally and officially implemented by the fledgling League of Nations.The League of Nations was created after the disaster that was World War I, with the express intent and purpose of preventing further wars. Article 11 of the the Covenant of the League reads as follows:

**"Any war or threat of war is a matter of concern to the whole League and the League shall take action that may safe guard peace."**

It was out of this driving mission statement that the implementation of the British Mandate was pressed forward.The official intent of the league in Palestine was to administer sections of the now defunct Ottoman Empire "until such time as they are able to stand alone." With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Syria however, Britain began to place heavy pressure on the League of Nations to go through with the Mandate, ultimately allowing Britian to not only control the territory but also finally permitting them to complete their obligations laid out in the Balfour Declaration. In addition to this the League was well aware of the social and racial tensions surrounding the heritage of the the nation of Israel contrasted with the native Palestinians. The Mandate seemed to be the best decision at the time, allowing for British rule for a time of 25 years. The League of nations saw limited success during its time of operation. Notable interventions include; The Aaland Islands (1921), Upper Silesia (1921), Memel (1923), Turkey (1923), and Greece and Bulgaria (1925).

After World War II however the League of Nations was replaced by the now current United Nations in an attempt to better keep the peace and strive to prevent further wars. ( A goal with the League of Nations had proved inadequate to accomplish) In order to better carry out its mission the newly formed United Nations had several subsidiary organizations that help carry out specific tasks. Examples of these include the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Organization (WFO) as well as many others.The United Nations (unlike its predecessor) has been granted far greater power for the mediation of conflict between countries, and was key during the transition out of British rule in Palestine. Today the United Nations has 192 Member states, including every sovereign state in the world with the exception of the Vatican. Hereis an interactive chart that shows the number of countries involved in the U.N. as well as the year that they joined.



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John Parkinson


 * __ 4. Mandate Government __**

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Before the 1920’s, Palestine was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. British military controlled the government in the gap between Ottoman withdrawal and a civil government, set up in 1920. The first steps at government taken by the mandatory power involved setting up an advisory council, which reported to the High Commissioner. The council included four Muslim Arabs, three Christian Arabs, and three Jews (Hyamson, 96). The members of that council acted only in an advisory capacity. The real legislative power lied with departmental heads, like railway, post, telephone, which were mostly staffed by on the high levels by Englishmen. The English to recruit junior supporting staff, half Christians, a quarter Jewish, and a quarter Muslim. Hyamson refers to the riots of 1920-21 as, “the Arab disturbances” (98). They were mad because they had little real power and the Jews that were supposed to move in and create a national home made up only ten percent of the population. Another author cites the disturbances as rioting and gives the location, which was Jaffa in 1921. An Arab delegation expressed wishes that the Belfour declaration be revoked and all alien immigration stopped (Sidebotham, 148-149). So we enter into a period of dispute over power separation. This system was considered at a high level. The High Commissioner had most of the power and the secretary of state would settle deadlock disputes.======

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In 1929, under Sir John Chancellor, there was a violent outbreak of Arab versus Jewish citizens. The Parliamentary commission in place at the time recommended self-government be set in motion as a response. Britain was supposed to be promoting this style of governance under the mandate. In 1932 the High Commisioner appeared before the League of Nations and made a move for elected legislative council. In 1935 the plan was disclosed for a Legislative council of fourteen Arabs and seven Jews. This was quickly opposed by the Jews, who said it would “fix a permanent minority status on the Jews and would impede the progress and development of the country” (Hyamson, 102)======

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Hyamson goes on to cite that local municipal councils worked well under the Ottoman rule. British authority saw the Legislative council as a way to phase in local representation and eventually pass power into self-governing hands, as it has done elsewhere in its empire. But unwillingness of the people in Palestine to work together prevented a similar system from taking hold. The local level of government, however, did make more impressive strides than the high level. The matters were less complicated and the mandate administration adopted Ottoman practices and filled in the holes. Property owning males of age 25 and up could vote and citizens were represented proportionally. Zionists resisted a lot of decisions and were granted twenty one year old electors and twenty five year old councilors in 1934. These two concessions, along with women’s suffrage, with majority approval, took hold in the two all Jewish areas: Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva (Hyamson, 103)======

//Source:// Sidebotham, Herbert. Great Britain and Palestine. London: MacMillam and Co., 1937. Print.

 * End of Mandate **

The end of the mandate era in Palestine was called for in 1947. A committee met in special session to discuss questions about the current conditions in Palestine under the mandatory power, the United Kingdom. The plan for the Partition of Palestine was dictated in text in UN General Assembly Resolution 181. The date was November 29, 1947.

This document called for: - Withdrawal of British forces by August 1st 1948. - Independent Arab and Jewish states - Provisional Councils of Government for each state that will receive power progressively. - Set boundaries.

An interesting point is that Resolution 181 passed the United Nations Voting procedures 33 in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstained. USA, USSR, South Africa, Canada, and Denmark and twenty-eight others voted for the Partition. Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen voted against.

//Source:// //"UN General Assembly Resolution 181, November 29,1947." Yale Avalon Project. Web. 1 March 2011. //

Countries in close proximity to Palestine opposed the idea. They probably understood the nature of the people in their own region and that they wouldn't get along when told exactly where to move. Maybe the empirical powers should have abandoned their empirical motives years ago and young governments would have developed their own feasible structure by now.

Below you can see two maps that detail the Arab and Jewish land ownership and the proposed partition as of 1947 plan to divide the land.

//Source:// Palestineremembered.com and mythsandfacts.org respectively -Reese

__**5. The Effects of Policies Adopted During The British Mandate of Palestine**__


The British Mandate in Palestine came to an end due to a number of historical factors and primarily amongst these were a few important treaties and declarations that were propagated in the preceding decades (Sorensen, 2008).


 * __Balfour Declaration__**



The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a policy of the British Government that stated their support for the establishment of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. It also mentioned that this would be achieved without harming the interest of other, non-Jewish communities living in Palestine or the rights of Jews in other countries. The declaration was made in the form of a letter between the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour to the Baron Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community in Britain (Gendler, 2011).

__**The Sykes-Picot Agreement**__

__** ﻿ **__

The Sykes Picot Agreement, established in 1916, was a secret agreement formed by the governments of the U.K. and France. The rise of Imperial Russia under the Tsar propitiated a meeting between the governments of France and Great Britain to establish ‘spheres of influence’ amongst the failing territories of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The main agenda behind this agreement was to allocate Arab territories which, in the future, would come under British and French occupation respectively. The involvement of Imperial Russia, prompted action from France and Britain, in order to strengthen their position as colonizers. The conditions of the agreement were negotiated by Francois Georges-Picot, a prominent French diplomat, and Sir Mark Sykes, his British counterpart. The importance of oil cannot be ruled out in the Sykes Picot Agreement. Mosul, an oil producing region in modern day Iraq, was deemed to be important to the British for this reason, but was ceded to the French before its oil producing potential could be fully realized by the British and ultimately conceded to keep out the Russian threat as an inducement for the French. They, in turn, conceded to maintaining certain British business and other interests in the region and the culmination of this agreement may have led to the foundation of Anglo-French oil production fields in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq (Fitzgerald, 1994)

__**UN General Resolution 181 (Partition Plan) -DR and AM**__



The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, also known as UN General Resolution 181 was adopted in 1947 by the U.N. General Assembly. It recommended the end of the British Mandate in Palestine and the partition of the land into two separate states for the Jewish and Arab populations. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be administered and protected by the U.N. It was aimed at addressing the potential for conflict between Arab nationalism and Zionism, which competed against each other in the region. It also sought to address the problem of Jews who had been displaced by the Holocaust. After the passing of the resolution, civil war broke out in the region. Also, Britain decided to leave the territory without any proposals for how power was to be shared or administered. In its 1988 Declaration of Statehood, the Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO stated that Resolution 181 continued to provide it with international legitimacy for the right of sovereignty and independence (Pappe, 2006).

__**References:**__

Gendler, N. The Balfour Declaration – a comprehensive read. Pittsburgh Jewish Publication and Education Foundation, Feb 10, 2011.

Sorensen, D. An Introduction to the Modern Middle East: History, Religion, Political Economy, Politics. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado 2008.

Fitzgerald, P. France’s Middle Eastern Ambitions, the Sykes-Picot Negotiations, and the Oil Fields of Mosul, 1915-1918. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 697-725

Pappe, I. A History of Modern Palestine: One land, Two Peoples. Cambridge University Press ; 2nd Edition. July 31st 2006.

Balfour Declaration. (2007). In Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/50162/Balfour-Declaration

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http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sykes-Picot_Agreement

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp

Timeline of Key Events During the British Mandate
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_overview.php
 * 1920 || [|British Mandate for Palestine] established by League of Nations over areas on both sides of the Jordan River ||
 * 1920-21 || [|Arab riots of 1920-1921] ||
 * 1922 || With first [|White Paper], Britain arbitrarily [|separates area east of Jordan River from the Palestine Mandate]; Jewish settlement prohibited in almost 80% of the Mandate. ||
 * 1929 || [|Arab riots]; 67 Jews massacred in Hebron ||
 * 1930-31 || A series of British commissions and reports fail to improve relations between Jews, Arabs and the Mandate government; restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement gradually increased ||
 * 1936-39 || [|Arab Revolt] ||
 * 1936-39 || A series of British commissions results in the [|1939 White Paper] that imposes severe restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine ||
 * 1939-45 || Desperate situation develops for Jews in Europe swept up by Nazi extermination plan; Britain insists on immigration limits; Jewish leadership gives up on Britain and turns to illegal immigration and violent resistance ||
 * 1945-46 || [|Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry] investigates plight of Jews in Displaced Persons camps in Europe while Britain still refuses to allow immigration to Palestine ||
 * 1946 || British Headquarters in Jerusalem's King David Hotel bombed by the Irgun ||
 * Spring 1947 || Britain transfers Palestine issue to the United Nations ||
 * Nov 29, 1947 || [|UN General Assembly Resolution 181] (Partition Plan) adopted; Arab irregular forces launch terror campaign against Jewish settlements ||
 * May 14, 1948 || [|British Mandate ends]; [|State of Israel proclaimed]; armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria [|invade] the following day ||

The Group: David Reese reeseda3@msu.edu Nathan Piette Piettena@msu.edu John Parkinson john.d.parkinson@google.com Akshay Mody Modyaksh@msu.edu