A brief background
As the British for forces entered the city of Jerusalem, it marked the end of the Ottoman Empire and rising of British 30-year reign (El-Eini). It was, however, at the Paris convention that the mandate system came into existence (Hughes). The mandate stated gave right to advanced nations to take control of all the regions, which were unable to hold a government of their own, so those developed countries had a right to form and manage affairs of the developing states until they were capable of handling them on their own.
This was the case of the Palestine issue prior to and during the First World War where the British government played an important role in order to regulate the situation and resolve the conflict. The Arabs and the Jews had scores to settle between themselves, that is why their harmonious coexistence depended on the British presence in the region and successful governance and management of both the parties. The British powers had promised to stay in the country until the Arabs were in a position to put up their own independent government.
This paper outlines the background of the British policy regarding the Palestine issue prior to and during the First World War. The research is conducted on the policies that governed the Palestinians during the time the British and French governments composed the Palestine mandate. Also the causes of the riots in the Middle East are outlined as a result of the Arab-Jewish conflicts.
This was included in the article 22 of the convent of the League of Nations (Hughes). In June 1919, the League of Nations officially signed Versailles treaty. The governmental power of Palestine was under the British mandate, and the country was officially called “British Mandate for Palestine” (Hughes). The League of Nations developed conditions for the British mandate, which integrated the Balfour affirmation.
The League of Nations Council
The League of Nations Council approved these terms on July 24, 1992, and later made them official in the same year (Biger). The United States of America endorsed and supported the move although it was not a member of the national league. From 1920 to 1948, the British civil administration operated in Palestine. The mandatory Palestine was, therefore, a geopolitical entity by the British government (Hughes).
This immediately came into effect after WW I, and the main objective of the League of Nations mandate was to take control of the dysfunctional Ottoman Empire (El-Eini). They intended to be in control of the Empire until the region was ready to stand on its own politically. On July, 1920, a civilian administration replaced the British troops governing Palestine (Hughes).
Commissioner Herbert Samuel
Around the same period, the first high commissioner, Herbert Samuel, arrived in the country to take up his responsibility as the newly appointed British commissioner for Palestine. The mandate required commissioners to establish self-governing institutions, and Samuel tried to do the same in Palestine. However, he experienced great resistance from the Arab leaders who were adamant to cooperate in any governance agreement that would include the Jews.
Creating the Palestinian order council was not an easy task since the Arabs felt that they deserved more seats than the Jews did. However, they had been given 43% of seats in the council, which brought disparities as a result. As the Arabs claimed that they constituted the major percent of population, of about 88%, they needed a greater representation in the council (Hughes). In the 1930s, Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam came in Palestine and established a military force to oppose British and Zionist militants.
The revolt
His men were peasants who received military training though by 1935, he had about 800 followers (Biger). They used bombs and firearms to kill Zionist settlers, vandalizing all the British rails and plantations (Hughes).
The situation got out of control when a policeman was killed in a battle between Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam’s men and the police patrol in 1935 (Hughes). The killing of a police officer prompted the entire police force to launch a manhunt, and eventually, they decided to arrest Qassam, but he killed in the ensuing battle in 1936 (Hughes).
This marked the beginning of a huge battle; the killing of Qassam enraged the Arab community. Qassam’s body had a huge mass of mourners surrounding it in Haifa (Hughes). His death caused a massive general strike in April, which lasted for seven months. The Arabs, and more specifically the Arab higher committee that had Amin al-Husseini as the head, instigated the chaos (Hughes).
This led to the destruction of acres of Jewish farms as well as massive deaths as Jewish civilians were tortured and killed. The violence went on for almost a year, and all efforts by the British amounted to little or no success at all. Throughout the beginning of the Arab revolution, owing to enmity amid the clans of al-Husseini and Nashashibi among the Palestinian Arabs, Raghib Nashashibi was strained to run away to Egypt as there were a number of assassinations planned by the radical mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husayni (Hughes).
After the negative response in regard to the Peel-Commission proposal, the insurgency recommenced in 1937. It continued for almost eighteen months until the British lost power and control over Nablus and Hebron (Biger). British forces, backed by the Jews, overcame the spreading chaos with a great force. The fall of the Ottoman Empire was a relief to both the Zionist and the Arabs as both had hopes of gaining control over Palestine.
Britain’s influence
The Zionist wanted to mobilize support of great super powers, such as Britain, while the Arabs hoped t form an independent Arab state that would cover the entire Ottoman Arab sphere of influence. Based on the demographic statistics, it is evident that the Zionists were overambitious since their population was hardly above 12%. The remaining 88% was Arab population.
The Zionists relied on British support, especially taking into account that their chief spokesperson Chaim Weizmann was a respected scientist who might have influenced the decision of Britain to take their side.
He was in a position to contribute to development of the Zionist military power. He had already established the influence of power and knew that the demarcations of the Middle East would not proceed on the world map. In his mind, he figured out that the great powers were instrumental in determining the map of the Middle East.
With that knowledge, he maintained a close relationship with the West and kept strengthening diplomatic interactions. Nonetheless, as the unfolding of the revolt went on, the number Arabs killed appeared to be more than that of the Jews. Five thousand Arabs were murdered, while only 400 Jews and 200 Britons were killed in the midst of the riots. At least 15,000 Arabs were killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled, which represented 10% of the total Arab male population (Hughes).
Effects of the attacks
During this period, the British troops also confiscated firearms from both the Arabs and the Jews. The effects of the battle or rather the attack on the Jews led to the formation of the Jewish underground militia known as the Haganah (Hughes). The other effect of this battle was that the two communities became intolerant of each other. The two could not reconcile or live together in peace without a quarrel.
The revolution affected the Palestinian national leadership, as well as social cohesion (Biger). The war was also responsible for Palestinian military collapse, which contributed greatly to the 1948 war (El-Eini). As the Palestinians had faced their worst military challenge in 1947-1949, they were still recovering from the effects of the British repression (Hughes). It is apparent that by the time the war started, the Palestinians had had no leadership structures in place.
Partition proposals
The peel commission had proposed a partition plan that they had previously rejected but later accepted as a basis for negotiations. The partition meant to form a small Jewish state while the Arabs population would have to move from the country. In London, the government also proposed a limit for Jewish immigration from Europe (Hughes). Palestine had become a conflict spot by the 20th century where territorial claims dominated the major conflicts surrounding the country.
As the Ottoman Empire was weakening, the European powers were busy trying to entrench their influence in the region. Sir Henry McMahon’s correspondence with Husayn Ibn Ali was aimed at leading a revolt against the Ottoman Empire (Hughes). At this point, it is important to note that the Ottoman Empire aligned with Germans who were in conflict with Britain.
The McMahon and Balfour’s declarations
Sir Henry McMahon promised to support the Arabs to form an independent government if they supported Britain in the war against the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, the Britons were successful in defeating the Ottoman Empire, and consequently, they took control of the entire territory. However, during the war, other promises came up that conflicted the earlier promises made by Sir Henry McMahon.
The Foreign Minister, Lord Arthur Balfour, gave a declaration that the British government would support the establishment of the Jewish national home in Palestine (Hughes). A secret agreement between Britain and France to carve up the Ottoman provinces and divide the control of the entire Empire among them was revealed (Biger). This is how the League of Nations formed the mandate.
Britain and France convinced the new League of Nations to grant the territorial authority over the Ottoman Empire (Hughes). The new League of Nations is the forerunner of the present day United Nations where Britain and France were the most powerful members of the union. The mandate was the name given to these two regimes. While the French mandate was to cover Syria and crave Lebanon, Britain covered Israel, the west bank, the Gaza strip and Jordan (Biger).
Britain tricked the Arabs
Later the British separated its territory into two halves, the east and west of the river Jordan. The east became the Emirates of Transjordan while the west became the Palestine mandate (Hughes). The British, however, had not fulfilled their promise to create an independent Arab state, and this made the Arabs very angry. They felt that Britain and France were out to take control over their territory, and they had never intended to help the Arabs to form their own government.
The situation in Palestine was even worse because the British government had promised to help the Jews establish a state as a national home (Biger). European Jewish immigration, land purchases and settlement sparked hostility and resistance from the native Arabs (Hughes). The Arabs could not accept the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, and this caused tension between the two sides.
The Arabs opposed the British because their Palestinian mandate made it impossible for the Arabs to establish their own self-governed state. The situation was very complex. In the absence of the Arab landowners, the Jews had bought large tracks of land, so the Jewish new landowners evicted the Arabs who lived in this area. This enraged the Arabs, and consequently, chaos erupted simultaneously all over Palestine.
Sykes-Picot Agreement and its impacts
Sykes-Picot Agreement, which was also called the Asian Minor Agreement, was another secret agreement between the United Kingdom and France (Hughes). The two countries signed the treaty around 1915 and 1916 which was the blueprint for their control system that would influence all the activities that would happen in the Middle East. This agreement saw the division of the Arab provinces and enhanced the influence of the British and French governments in the Middle East.
In this agreement, the United Kingdom was to take over the coastal regions, such as the port of Haifa and Acre, which allowed the British government to access the Mediterranean (Hughes). France, on the other hand, took control over the southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon (Hughes). With the assenting of the Russian government, the control over the Ottoman Armenian Vilayets was under them (Hughes).
This agreement was made mostly regarding the main influence on the Arab / Western relations since the British government had to negotiate and fulfill the promises made to Arabs through T.E Lawrence (Hughes). The promise of independent Arab governance and the creation of an Arabic homeland area became a reality. This was however in exchange for the Arabs support for the British during World War I.
Support for the United Kingdom during World War I was the price the Arabs had to pay for their freedom, and the same had happened earlier during the Balfour declaration. However, that time round, the British government was committed to deliver on their promises. This agreement divided the Levant into the different areas that were direct subjects of the British government. The idea was to do that exactly, and the British achieved their goal in this undertaking.
The impact of World War I was devastating as it undermined the military system and almost left the Palestinians without any military power, which appeared to the main factor that affected them during the Second World War. Their men died in the battle, while fighting for the Britons as well as many Arabs were wounded, hence crippling the Arabs defensive power. In the aftermath of World War II, statistics showed that the war affected more than 15% of the total Arab population.
Scrabble for the control of Palestine did more harm than good to the natives even though they received help to build up an autonomous government. Still the Jews / Arabs conflict was a factor that was greatly influenced the British invasion in the region. The agreement was instrumental in the formation of the Arab country, and that was the promise of the British government which they fulfilled.
Religious clashes between the Jews and the Arab Muslims
In 1928, religious clashes began, and both the Jews and the Arabs claimed the ownership of the Wailing Wall, which both their religions considered their own holy site of worship. The wall was the only structure left of the second Jewish temple and signified holiness for the Jews. On the other hand, the Muslims held the Wailing Wall as a special religious site since it was adjacent to the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock where the prophet Mohamed ascended to heaven.
Germans and Britons in conflict over Ottoman
It was apparent that the British was not ready to deliver on the promises made and event other countries such as the US had begun to notice the trick used by the Britons to maintain control of the Arab region. The dispute concerning Palestine resulting from the information that it is not declared in the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, but incorporated in the borders that projected by Hussein.
Whatever McMahon had intended to say is inappropriate, since the definite conditions used enclosed the vows. The Arab arrangement was that parts of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo could not submit to Palestine because that was in the south of the named areas. The Balfour declaration came into a lot of criticism due to the inconsistency in its promise.
The House of Commons filed a motion to revise the secret treaties with allied governments. The British and French government secretes treaty signed for under the Palestine mandate for example was inconsistent with the countries reasons for going into war. The mandatory Palestine was therefore a geopolitical entity by the British government (Biger).
Conclusion
The British government was in the forefront trying to establish a government in the Middle East. This paper clearly shows that the British were not the only great western power in place that controlled and managed the activities in the Middle East. France and Germany are also in the list of courtiers who were interested in establishing political control over Palestine.
The number of treaties involved in the Palestine mandate deal was not just to help or benefit the natives. To some extent, the West had ill motives which were driving their invasion. The conflict between the Arabs and the Jews is a major aspect of the Palestine issue as it is evident as it has lasted up to today. The disagreements are to some extent religious and partly political, but the common factor is that the conflicts are serious and difficult to solve.
In this paper, the causes of the riots against the British and the conflict between Jews and Arabs are examined. This research has highlighted all the events that took place before, during and after the period of the First World War. The impacts of the Palestine mandate are also a great component of this paper as well as the factors leading to the battles between the Jews, the Arabs and the British, which clearly underline the effects those conflicts had on each party.
Works Cited
Biger, Gideon. The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840–1947, London, UK: Routledge, 2004. Print.
El-Eini, Roza. Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948, London, UK: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Hughes, Matthew. Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917–1919, London, UK: Routledge, 1999. Print.