Mandatory Palestine

Mandatory Palestine, officially called Palestine, was a British-controlled area from 1920 to 1948 in the region of Palestine. After World War I, British forces took over from the Ottoman Empire. The British had promised Arab independence but instead, together with France, divided the area. They also promised support for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine.

During this time, many Jewish people moved to the area, and both Jewish and Arab communities formed strong groups with different ideas about the future. This led to conflicts.

In 1947, the United Nations suggested splitting the area into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs. Fighting followed in 1948, and the land of Mandatory Palestine became parts of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt’s area in the Gaza Strip.

Etymology

See also: Timeline of the name "Palestine"

The land was called "Palestine," just like local Arab people and old Ottoman rulers used, and also like European traditions. The British rulers chose English, Arabic, and Hebrew as the three official languages.

In 1926, the British used the traditional Arabic word for the land, Filasţīn (فلسطين), and its Hebrew form Pālēśtīnā (פּלשׂתינה). Jewish leaders wanted to use the Hebrew name ʾĒrēts Yiśrāʾel (ארץ ישׂראל), meaning Land of Israel. To make a compromise, the British added special Hebrew letters (א״י) after Pālēśtīnā in official documents when writing in Hebrew. Some Arab leaders were unhappy and suggested calling the land "Southern Syria" instead, but the British did not accept that idea. The word "mandatory" shows that the land’s rules came from a League of Nations mandate, meaning Britain was allowed to manage it, not that people had to follow it by force.

History

For the background to the creation of the mandate, see Mandate for Palestine.

For the period of Palestine's history between the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1917–18 and the beginning of British civil administration in July 1920, see Occupied Enemy Territory Administration.

1920s

Following the arrival of the British, Arab inhabitants established Muslim-Christian Associations in all of the major towns. In 1919 they joined to hold the first Palestine Arab Congress in Jerusalem. It was aimed primarily at representative government and opposition to the Balfour Declaration. Concurrently, the Zionist Commission formed in March 1918 and actively promoted Zionist objectives in Palestine. On 19 April 1920, elections took place for the Assembly of Representatives of the Palestinian Jewish community.

In April 1920, riots in Jerusalem caused the deaths of a few people.

In July 1920, a British civilian administration headed by a High Commissioner replaced the military administration. The first High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, arrived in Palestine on 20 June 1920 to take up his appointment from 1 July. Samuel established his headquarters and official residence in part of the Augusta Victoria Hospital complex on Mount Scopus. Damaged by an earthquake in 1927, this building served as the headquarters and official residence of the British High Commissioners until 1933. In that year, a new, purpose-built headquarters and official residence for the High Commissioner was completed. Referred to as Armon HaNetziv by the Jewish population, this building remained in use as the headquarters and official residence of the British High Commissioners until the end of British rule in 1948.

One of the first actions of the newly installed civil administration was to begin granting concessions from the Mandatory government over key economic assets. In 1921 the government granted Pinhas Rutenberg concessions for the production and distribution of electrical power. Palestinian-Arabs saw it as proof that the British intended to favour Zionism. The British administration claimed that electrification would enhance the economic development of the country as a whole.

In May 1921, following a disturbance, almost 100 people died in rioting in Jaffa.

High Commissioner Samuel tried to establish self-governing institutions in Palestine, as required by the mandate, but the Arab leadership refused to co-operate with any institution which included Jewish participation. When Kamil al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, died in March 1921, High Commissioner Samuel appointed his half-brother, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, to the position. Amin al-Husseini was an Arab nationalist and Muslim leader. As Grand Mufti, he played a key role in opposition to Zionism. In 1922, al-Husseini was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council which had been established by Samuel in December 1921. The Council controlled the Waqf funds and the orphan funds. In addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine.

The 1922 Palestine Order in Council established a Legislative Council, which was to consist of 23 members. Arabs protested against the distribution of the seats. Elections took place in February and March 1923, but due to an Arab boycott, the results were annulled and a 12-member Advisory Council was established.

In October 1923, Britain provided the League of Nations with a report on the administration of Palestine for the period 1920–1922.

In August 1929, there were riots in which many people died.

1930s: Arab armed insurgency

In 1930, Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam arrived in Palestine from Syria, then part of the French-ruled Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, and organised the Black Hand, an anti-Zionist group. He recruited men and arranged military training for them. In November 1935, two of his men engaged in a firefight with a Palestine Police patrol and a policeman was killed. Following the incident, British colonial police launched a search and surrounded al-Qassam in a cave near Ya'bad. In the ensuing battle, al-Qassam was killed.

The Arab revolt

Main article: 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

The death of al-Qassam generated widespread outrage in the Arab community. A few months later, in April 1936, the Arab national general strike broke out. The strike lasted until October 1936, instigated by the Arab Higher Committee, headed by Amin al-Husseini. During the summer of that year, farms and orchards were destroyed. Jewish civilians were attacked and killed, and some Jewish communities fled to safer areas. The violence abated for about a year while the British sent the Peel Commission to investigate.

After the Arab rejection of the Peel Commission recommendation, the revolt resumed in autumn 1937. Over the next 18 months, the British lost cities. British forces, supported by armed Jewish police, suppressed the widespread riots with force. The British officer Charles Orde Wingate organised Special Night Squads of British soldiers and Jewish volunteers; these "scored significant successes against the Arab rebels".

The revolt had a negative effect on Palestinian Arab leadership, social cohesion, and military capabilities.

Partition proposals

In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed a partition between a small Jewish state and an Arab state to be attached to the Emirate of Transjordan. The proposal was rejected outright by the Arabs. The two main Jewish leaders had convinced the Zionist Congress to equivocally approve the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.

Following the London Conference in February and March 1939, the British Government published a White Paper which proposed a limit to Jewish immigration from Europe, restrictions on Jewish land purchases, and a programme for creating an independent state to replace the Mandate within ten years. This was seen by the Jewish community as betrayal of the mandatory terms. In response, Zionists organised a programme of illegal immigration into Palestine. However, the Jewish Agency, which represented the mainstream Zionist leadership, still hoped to persuade Britain to allow resumed Jewish immigration and cooperated with Britain during the Second World War.

Second World War

Allied and Axis activity

On 10 June 1940, during the Second World War, the Kingdom of Italy declared war on the British Empire and sided with Nazi Germany. Within a month, the Italians attacked Palestine from the air, bombing Tel Aviv and Haifa.

In 1942, there was a period of great concern for the Jewish community, when the German forces of General Erwin Rommel advanced east across North Africa towards the Suez Canal. This period was referred to as the "200 days of dread". This event was the direct cause for the founding, with British support, of the Palmach – a highly trained regular unit belonging to Haganah.

The Jewish community rallied around the Allied war effort despite anger over British restrictions on Jewish immigration. About 30,000 Jews from Mandatory Palestine served with the British Armed Forces during the war.

As in most of the Arab world, there was no unanimity amongst the Palestinian Arabs as to their position regarding the belligerents in the Second World War. A number of leaders and public figures saw an Axis victory as the likely outcome. On the other hand, as many as 12,000 Palestinian Arabs volunteered to join and fight for the British. However, this history has been less studied.

Mobilisation

On 3 July 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade within the British Army. On 20 September 1944, an official communiqué by the War Office announced the formation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army. The Jewish Brigade was shipped to Italy, where it joined the British Eighth Army under the 15th Army Group, and fought in the Spring Offensive of the Italian Campaign. The Jewish Brigade was then stationed in Tarvisio, near the border triangle of Italy, Yugoslavia, and Austria.

From the Palestine Regiment, two platoons, one Jewish, under the command of Brigadier Ernest Benjamin, and another Arab, were sent to join Allied forces on the Italian Front.

Besides Jews and Arabs from Palestine, in total by mid-1944 the British had assembled a multiethnic force consisting of volunteer European Jewish refugees, Yemenite Jews and Abyssinian Jews.

The Holocaust and immigration quotas

In 1939, as a consequence of the White Paper of 1939, the British reduced the number of immigrants allowed into Palestine. The Second World War and the Holocaust started shortly thereafter and once the 15,000 annual quota was exceeded, Jews fleeing Nazi persecution were interned in detention camps or deported to places such as Mauritius.

Starting in 1939, a clandestine immigration effort called Aliya Bet was spearheaded by an organisation called Mossad LeAliyah Bet. Tens of thousands of European Jews escaped the Nazis in boats and small ships headed for Palestine. The British Royal Navy intercepted many of the vessels. Illegal immigration resumed after the end of the Second World War, especially by the Haganah, who carried mostly illegal Jewish immigrants in the period 1945-47.

Beginning of Zionist insurgency

The Jewish Lehi (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) and Irgun (National Military Organisation) movements initiated violent uprisings against the British Mandate in the 1940s. On 6 November 1944, Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet Zuri (members of Lehi) assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo. After the assassination of Lord Moyne, the Haganah kidnapped, interrogated, and turned over to the British many members of the Irgun. Irgun ordered its members not to resist or retaliate with violence, so as to prevent a civil war.

After the Second World War: Insurgency and the Partition Plan

Main articles: 1947 UN Partition Plan and 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine

The three main Jewish underground forces later united to form the Jewish Resistance Movement and carry out several attacks and bombings against the British administration. In 1946, the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the southern wing of which was the headquarters of the British administration, killing many people. Following the bombing, the British Government began interning illegal Jewish immigrants in Cyprus.

On 12 November 1947, two weeks before the United Nations voted on partitioning British soldiers attacked a house in Ra'anana where a Lehi training course for young people was being held. Four trainees aged 16–18 and their 19-year-old instructor were murdered.

In 1948, the Lehi assassinated Count Bernadotte, the UN mediator, in Jerusalem.

The negative publicity resulting from the situation in Palestine caused the Mandate to become widely unpopular in Britain itself. The British Labour Party had promised before its election in 1945 to allow mass Jewish migration into Palestine but reneged on this promise once in office. Anti-British Jewish militancy increased, and the situation required the presence of over 100,000 British troops in the country. Following the Acre Prison Break and the retaliatory hanging of British sergeants by the Irgun, the British announced their desire to terminate the mandate and to withdraw by no later than the beginning of August 1948.

The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in 1946 was a joint attempt by Britain and the United States to agree on a policy regarding the admission of Jews to Palestine. In April, the Committee reported that its members had arrived at a unanimous decision. The Committee approved the American recommendation of the immediate acceptance of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine. It also recommended that there be no Arab or Jewish state. The Committee stated that "in order to dispose, once and for all, of the exclusive claims of Jews and Arabs to Palestine, we regard it as essential that a clear statement of principle should be made that Jew shall not dominate Arab and Arab shall not dominate Jew in Palestine". U.S. President Harry S. Truman angered the British Government by issuing a statement supporting the 100,000 refugees but refusing to acknowledge the rest of the committee's findings. Britain had asked for U.S. assistance in implementing the recommendations.

These events were the decisive factors that forced Britain to announce their desire to terminate the Palestine Mandate and place the Question of Palestine before the United Nations. The UN created UNSCOP (the UN Special Committee on Palestine) on 15 May 1947, with representatives from 11 countries. UNSCOP conducted hearings and made a general survey of the situation in Palestine and issued its report on 31 August. Seven members recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. Three members supported the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. Australia abstained.

On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly, voting 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union as Resolution 181 (II), 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. The partition plan required that the proposed states grant full civil rights to all people within their borders, regardless of race, religion or gender. The UN General Assembly is only granted the power to make recommendations; therefore, UNGAR 181 was not legally binding. Both the US and the Soviet Union supported the resolution. The five members of the Arab League, who were voting members at the time, voted against the Plan.

The Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation, accepted the plan, and nearly all the Jews in Palestine rejoiced at the news.

The partition plan was rejected by the Palestinian Arab leadership and by most of the Arab population. Meeting in Cairo on November and December 1947, the Arab League then adopted a series of resolutions endorsing a military solution to the conflict.

Britain announced that it would accept the partition plan, but refused to enforce it, arguing it was not accepted by the Arabs. Britain also refused to share the administration of Palestine with the UN Palestine Commission during the transitional period. In September 1947, the British government announced that the Mandate for Palestine would end at midnight on 14 May 1948.

Some Jewish organisations also opposed the proposal. Irgun leader Menachem Begin announced, "The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognised."

Termination of the mandate

See also: End of the British Mandate for Palestine

When the United Kingdom announced the independence of the Emirate of Transjordan as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946, the final Assembly of the League of Nations and the General Assembly both adopted resolutions welcoming the news. The Jewish Agency objected, claiming that Transjordan was an integral part of Palestine.

During the General Assembly deliberations on Palestine, there were suggestions that it would be desirable to incorporate part of Transjordan's territory into the proposed Jewish state. A few days before the adoption of Resolution 181 (II) on 29 November 1947, US Secretary of State Marshall noted frequent references had been made by the Ad Hoc Committee regarding the desirability of the Jewish State having both the Negev and an "outlet to the Red Sea and the Port of Aqaba". According to John Snetsinger, Chaim Weizmann visited President Truman on 19 November 1947 and said it was imperative that the Negev and Port of Aqaba be within the Jewish state. Truman telephoned the US delegation to the UN and told them he supported Weizmann's position. However, the Trans-Jordan memorandum excluded territories of the Emirate of Transjordan from any Jewish settlement.

Immediately after the UN resolution, civil war broke out between the Arab and Jewish communities, and British authority began to break down. On 16 December 1947, the Palestine Police Force withdrew from the Tel Aviv area, home to more than half the Jewish population, and turned over responsibility for the maintenance of law and order to Jewish police. As the civil war raged on, British military forces gradually withdrew from Palestine, although they occasionally intervened in favour of either side. Many of these areas became war zones. The British maintained strong presences in Jerusalem and Haifa, even as Jerusalem came under siege by Arab forces and became the scene of fierce fighting, though the British occasionally intervened in the fighting, largely to secure their evacuation routes. The Palestine Police Force was largely inoperative, and government services such as social welfare, water supplies, and postal services were withdrawn. In March 1948, all British judges in Palestine were sent back to Britain. In April 1948, the British withdrew from most of Haifa but retained an enclave in the port area to be used in the evacuation of British forces, and retained RAF Ramat David, an airbase close to Haifa, to cover their retreat, leaving behind a volunteer police force to maintain order. The city was quickly captured by the Haganah in the Battle of Haifa. After the victory, British forces in Jerusalem announced that they had no intention of overseeing any local administration but also that they would not permit actions that would hamper the safe and orderly withdrawal of their forces; military courts would try anybody who interfered. By this time British authority in most Palestine had broken down, with most of the country in the hands of Jews or Arabs, but the British air and sea blockade of Palestine remained in place. Although Arab volunteers were able to cross the borders between Palestine and the surrounding Arab states to join the fighting, the British did not allow the regular armies of the surrounding Arab states to cross into Palestine.

The British had notified the UN of their intent to terminate the mandate not later than 1 August 1948. However, early in 1948, the United Kingdom announced its firm intention to end its mandate in Palestine on 15 May. In response, President Harry S. Truman made a statement on 25 March proposing UN trusteeship rather than partition.

The British Parliament passed the necessary legislation to terminate the Mandate with the Palestine Bill, which received Royal assent on 29 April 1948.

By 14 May 1948, the only British forces remaining in Palestine were in the Haifa area and in Jerusalem. On that same day, the British garrison in Jerusalem withdrew, and the last High Commissioner, General Sir Alan Cunningham, left the city for Haifa, where he was to leave the country by sea. The Jewish leadership, led by the future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, on the afternoon of 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708 in the Hebrew calendar), to come into effect at the moment of termination of the Mandate at midnight. Also on the 14th, the Provisional Government of Israel asked the US Government for recognition, on the frontiers specified in the UN Plan for Partition. The United States immediately replied, recognizing "the provisional government as the de facto authority".

At midnight on 14/15 May 1948, the Mandate for Palestine expired, and the State of Israel came into being. The Palestine Government formally ceased to exist, the status of British forces still in the process of withdrawal from Haifa changed to occupiers of foreign territory, the Palestine Police Force formally stood down and was disbanded, with the remaining personnel evacuated alongside British military forces.

Over the next few days, approximately 700 Lebanese, 1,876 Syrian, 4,000 Iraqi, and 2,800 Egyptian troops crossed over the borders into Palestine, starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Around 4,500 Transjordanian troops, commanded partly by 38 British officers who had resigned their commissions in the British Army only weeks earlier, including overall commander, General John Bagot Glubb, entered the corpus separatum region encompassing Jerusalem and its environs (in response to the Haganah's Operation Kilshon) and moved into areas designated as part of the Arab state by the UN partition plan. The war, which was to last until 1949, would see Israel expand to encompass about 78% of the territory of the former British Mandate, with Transjordan seizing and subsequently annexing the West Bank and the Kingdom of Egypt seizing the Gaza Strip. With the end of the Mandate, the remaining British troops in Israel were concentrated in an enclave in the Haifa port area, through which they were being withdrawn, and at RAF Ramat David, which was maintained to cover the withdrawal. The British handed over RAF Ramat David to the Israelis on 26 May and on 30 June, the last British troops were evacuated from Haifa. The British flag was lowered from the administrative building of the Port of Haifa and the Israeli flag was raised in its place, and the Haifa port area was formally handed over to the Israeli authorities in a ceremony.

Politics

The British controlled Palestine from 1920 to 1948. The government was weak and split, especially between Jewish and Arab communities. Both groups made their own groups, almost like having two different governments.

The Arab community wanted more control and rights, but the British often did not listen. They tried to create a council for Arabs, but many refused to join.

The Jewish community grew fast, with many people coming from other countries. They built farms, schools, and hospitals. Some groups used force to protect themselves or to get more land.

Land ownership was a big problem. Much of the land was owned by Arab families or groups, but Jews also bought and farmed a lot of land, especially in some areas. The British made rules about who could buy land where to try to keep things fair.

Demographics

Main article: Demographic history of Palestine (region) § British Mandate era

In 1920, about 750,000 people lived in this area. They had many different backgrounds. Most spoke Arabic and were Muslim, including Bedouin groups near Beersheba. There were also Jewish people, making up about 11% of the group. Other groups included smaller numbers of Druze, Syrians, Sudanese, Somalis, Circassians, Egyptians, Copts, Greeks, and Hejazi Arabs.

The first census in 1922 counted 757,182 people. Most were Muslim, some were Jewish, and others were Christian. A later census in 1931 counted even more people. By 1945, the population had grown to about 1,764,520.

The next table shows the religious groups in each of the 16 districts in 1945.

Government and institutions

During this time, Palestine was divided into different areas, each led by a British official known as the High Commissioner.

Religious groups had their own special courts to handle personal matters. This system started with the old Ottoman rulers. Only some religious groups were recognized, so people from other groups did not have the same options for things like marriage.

Other courts were set up in a British style, with a High Court that could review decisions from smaller courts. Over the years, five main judges led these courts.

A local newspaper called The Palestine Post started in 1932 and later changed its name. In 1923, a company was created to bring electricity to the area.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Mandatory Palestine

When Britain managed the land called Palestine, many people worked on farms and lived in the countryside. The Jewish community grew quickly, with help from new people moving in and money from other countries.

New companies started, like the Jaffa Electric Company in 1923 and Palestine Airways in 1934. Many factories and homes were built in the city of Haifa.

Education

When Britain was in charge of Palestine, the area grew in many ways, including learning. In 1919, Jewish people started schools where they taught in Hebrew. They also made groups to help their communities and workers.

In 1924, a university called the Technion was started. Another university, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, began in 1925. Arab Palestinians wanted to start their own university in the 1920s, but it did not happen. By 1932, most Jewish people could read and write, but only a small part of Arab Palestinians could. Over time, more Arab Palestinians learned to read and write.