THE BRITISH IN PALESTINE
2 November 1917
The Balfour Declaration, a letter from Britain’s foreign secretary, AJ Balfour, vaguely declares support for a Jewish “home” in Palestine. British troops soon oust Ottoman forces from the region, and on 11 December, General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem’s old city, marking the start of British administration.
24 July 1922
League of Nations articles 4 and 6 for Mandate Palestine codify the Balfour Declaration and establish the Jewish AIenc[ as tJe oʛciaN ,eYisJ DoF[ in Palestine. They also restate the goal of a Jewish “home” in Palestine, and commit Britain to “facilitate” Jewish immigration and “settlement” there.
20 October 1930
British colonial secretary .ord 2assfieldos 9hite
Paper notes the damaging econoOic anF sociaN effects of Jewish settlement on Palestinians, and suggests restricting Jewish immigration 6Jis reʚects the fact that Britain has reconsidered its support for Zionism after riots in 19P9.
13 February 1931
dollowing Zionist protests, British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald writes to Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann (belowG, and announces to the House of aommons that British policy remains to support Jewish immigration to Palestine.
1936–37
Lord Peel’s Commission to Palestine is tJe rst oʛciaN inquiry to suggest partition into Jewish and Arab Palestinian areas. The plan is rejected by Arabs, while the Jewish leadership equivocates over the extent of their territory. This partition is not enacted.
1936–39
The Palestinians rise up in April 1936 in a popular uprising known in Arabic as al-Thawra al-Kubra (‘the Great pevolt’G that battled against British Mandate rule in Palestine and Jewish immigration to the country. gts suppression required a huge deployment of British troops, along with house destruction, detention, JanIinIs ninIs anF cWrfeYs
23 May 1939
Following the Arab Revolt and a London conference in February–March 1939, a British White Paper rejects partition and restricts Jewish immigration and land purchases in Palestine. Zionist Jewish representatives reject it, as do some Arabs.
29 November 1947
After deliberation by the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), the UN issues Resolution 181 recommending partition and the end of the British Mandate. The mainstream Jewish Agency accepts the partition boundaries, while Arab representatives reject the plan.
14 May 1948
At 4pm, David Ben-Gurion, speaking in the Tel Aviv Museum (now Independence Hall), declares the establishment of the State of Israel. The war that follows that declaration expands the new nation’s territory beyond the 1947 UNSCOP partition borders, an event that comes to be known by Palestinians as the ‘Nakba’ – catastrophe.
30 June–1 July 1948
Following the formal end of the British Mandate at midnight on 14/15 May 1948, the last British troops leave Palestine from Haifa harbour.
1948-49
A civil war inside Palestine before May 1948 becomes an international war with the formation of Israel, as the new Jewish state fights armies from Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria. By 1949, well-organised Israeli troops have pushed out Arab forces and advanced to capture what would become the town of Eilat on the Red Sea. For Israelis, this is an independence war.