After the Peel Commission’s report proposed that the land of Palestine be partitioned into three separate areas: an Arab state, a Jewish state, and a neutral zone, the partitioning was accepted by the Jewish Zionists and rejected by the Palestinian Arabs, thus the British wanted to figure out what to do.The prospect of war in Europe alarmed the British government causing it to reassess its policy in Palestine. If Britain joined the war, it could not afford to deal with Arab hostility in Palestine and neighboring countries. Thus, the British government sent out another commission to investigate and examine the practicality of the partition.

14 July 2022

Read more: The 1938 Woodhead Commission

On April 20, 1936, Palestinian Arabs, led by a former Turkish military officer, rebelled against the British government. This all began because the Palestinian Arabs desired political autonomy from the British and resented the continued mass influx of Jewish immigration into Palestine due partly to escaping Nazi control in Germany and Europe.

14 July 2022

Read more: The 1936-1939 Arab Revolt In Palestine

In 1929 mid-August, the tensions between the Jews and the Arabs in British-controlled Palestine were growing. These tensions would soon lead to one of the worst massacres of the Jewish community in Palestine, which would later become the State of Israel.

14 July 2022

Read more: The 1929 Hebron Massacre

Following World War 1, in July 1922, the newly formed League of Nations approved what was to be called 'the British Mandate for Palestine'. This allowed for British administration and authority over the territories of Palestine which was surrendered by the Ottoman Empire following the end of World War 1 in 1918. England had been occupying the territory and serving as peacekeepers from just before the end of the war in 1917 until the formal declaration in 1922. Prior to the British Occupation and subsequent mandate, Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire's Syrian territory under the control of Hussein ibn Ali.

14 July 2022

Read more: The Ever-Changing Mandate for Palestine

On November 2nd, 1917, the British Government issued a public statement known as the Balfour Declaration. The document represented a political breakthrough showcasing British support for establishing a Jewish state in the land of Palestine. Later, under pressure from Arab allies of Britain, the idea of a “national home for the Jewish people” was altered to include a clause that said it (Jewish Homeland) was to be established alongside an Arab country to accommodate the Arabs who lived within the stated territory.  From the start, the Balfour Declaration intended a population shift, moving Jews and Arabs to within the borders of the two respective countries. In 1922, a map was drawn showing the area of Trans-Jordan, current-day Jordan as the Arab State, and the entirety of Judea & Samaria, along with the coastline of historic Palestine comprising the State that was to be the national home of the Jewish people - the wording was important and intentional. 

14 July 2022

Read more: The Balfour Declaration & The Mandate For Palestine - 1917 - 1922