The Palestine Mandate

On 31st October 1917, while the war was still far from over, Britain entered into a monumentus commitment about the future of Palestine.  In a declaration issued under the name of the British Foreign Secretary, A.J. Balfour, the British government stated that it viewed 'with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people - it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine'.  In 1922 Britain was formally awarded the mandate of Palestine.

The mandate was problem ridden. The creation of a Jewish state in an area where only 11% of the population were actually Jewish, the others being mainly Muslim. It quickly became clear that the creation of a national home for the Jewish people would be fraught with problems and would be threatened by its Arab neighbors and own population. From 1929 the area was fraught with conflict between the Arab-Jewish population. Following the Second World War German attempts to infiltrate the area and exacerbate anti-British feelings and religious conflicts were rife and the Labour Government of 1945 inherited the problem. By February 1947, the British Government had no option but to abandon its commitment and return Palestine to the United Nations.  The British troops withdrew from Palestine by May 1948 and the inevitable Jewish-Arab war that followed resulted, and the state of Israel emerged victorious.