Creation of the Palestine Mandate IAFS/JWST 3650

Announcements “Israeli Soldiers Tell Their Stories”, 6pm, 28 Feb, Eaton Humanities 150 Office hours TODAY 1-3 (no office hours Thu) This week’s Smith reading: &

Outline Attempts to reconcile McMahon-Hussein Corr. and Balfour Declaration Collaboration Beginning of the Palestine Mandate

Strategic Vagueness McMahon-Hussein correspondence vague as to location Balfour Declaration vague as to nature of Jewish entity in Palestine

Quickthink How are the terms “nation,” “state,” and “national home” different? Why does it matter which exact term British promises used?

Nation, State, National Home State = sovereign political entity Nation = more figurative cultural entity National Home = ?

Collaboration Jan 1918: McMahon promises Hussein, via intermediary, that Balfour Decl will respect “existing population[‘s]... economic and political” rights British needed Hussein for Revolt Hussein needed British for legitimacy

Collaboration Collaborators = those who work with the imperial power Sometimes for own benefit (e.g. Sharif Hussein), sometimes because of coercion Spectrum: resistance  collaboration

League of Nations Mandates 1922: League granted “Mandates” to – France: Lebanon and Syria – Britain: Iraq, Transjordan, Palestine Mandatory Powers held territory “in trust” for benefit of local population

Boundaries Clear, defined boundaries as civilized Flexible, overlapping, dynamic boundaries as immature In practice, British tolerated unclear boundaries in West Asia until... OIL

Suez Canal 1919: unrest in Egypt (and worldwide) 1922: Britain granted qualified independence to Egypt

Palestine Mandate Boundaries 1922: Transjordan’s de facto division from Palestine Mandate

Palestine Region Before World War I 80% Muslim 10% Christian 8% Jewish

Dealing with Conflicting Promises George Antonius as scholar-advocate – Favored pan-Arabism over pan-Islam – The Arab Awakening (1938) Arab sense of British duplicity

Sources of Conflicting Promises Result of imperial structure? (India Office, Colonial Office, Foreign Office, Cabinet, Prime Minister) —Antonius (397): “the British right hand was sometimes completely ignorant of what the left hand had done or was about to do.”

Faisal-Weizmann Agreement 1919: Faisal (son of Hussein) approved of Zionism... subject to creation of Arab state as described in McMahon-Hussein corr. 1919: Syrian memo opposing Zionism

Arab-Jewish Unrest 1920 attacks 1921 Cairo Conference Churchill: “Zionism... good for the Arabs”

Preamble of Palestine Mandate (Legal Instrument, 1922) “Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have agreed, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to entrust to a Mandatory selected by the said Powers the administration of the territory of Palestine, which formerly belonged to the Turkish Empire, within such boundaries as may be fixed by them; and Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non- Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country;”

Palestine Mandate Text “Jew/Jewish” mentioned 14 times “Hebrew” mentioned three times “Arabic” mentioned three times “Non-Jewish” mentioned once “Arab/Arabs” mentioned zero times

World War I Legacy Arabs concerns, Jewish optimism as Palestine Mandate entered 1920s Emerging pattern of Arab-Jewish violence