The British Mandate Period 1920-1948

In 1917, Great Britain proposed a mandate that promised a movement of Jewish Israelis to land of their own, the nation of Palestine. This started the conflict between Israel and Palestine, an ongoing problem that has escalated to epic proportions, bringing the whole world into the conflict. The genuine root of the problem seems to be the root hatred between the two sides for each other, a hatred of other’s religious beliefs. The British Mandate seems to be a large part of how this whole problem started.

The Balfour Declaration, made in November 1917 by the British Government was made by a European power about a non-European territory, with a flat disregard of both the presence and wishes of the native majority resident in that territory, the Jews and the Arabs. Balfour, the British leader himself wrote in 1919, “The contradiction between the letter of the Covenant (the Anglo French Declaration of 1918 promising the Arabs that as a reward for supporting the Allies they could have their independence) is even more flagrant in the case of the independent nation of Palestine than in that of the independent nation of Syria. For in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country.” This was an openly published form; Balfour seemed to not care if the Arabs or Jews heard. Those involved were committed to Zionism, and Zionism, be it good or bad, is rooted in deep tradition, and is of more importance than the desire and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who then inhabited the ancient land of Palestine.

In 1919, the American King-Crane Commission spent six weeks in Syria and Palestine, interviewing delegations and reading petitions from the people. Their report stated, "The commissioners began their study of Zionism with minds predisposed in its favor, and the fact came out repeatedly in the Commission's conferences with Jewish representatives that the Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine.” If self-determination was to rule, the wishes of Palestine's population were going to be important regarding what was to happen with Palestine. The non-Jewish population of Palestine, nearly ninety percent of the population, was highly and vocally against the entire Zionist program. Subjecting people so opinionated to unlimited Jewish immigration, so opposed to steady financial and social pressure to surrender the land, was a huge violation of what should have gone on. No British officers consulted by the Commissioners believed that the Zionist program could be carried out except by force of arms. Those officers generally thought that a force of fifty thousand soldiers or more would be required to even attempt the program. That itself is very strong evidence of the injustice of the Zionist program. The initial claim, often submitted by Zionist representatives, that they had a “right” to Palestine based on occupation of two thousand years ago, wasn’t even remotely seriously considered.

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The Zionists from Britain made no secret of their intentions, in 1921, Dr. Eder, a member of the Zionist Commission, boldly told the Court of Inquiry, “There can be only one National Home in Palestine, and that a Jewish one, and no equality in the partnership between Jews and Arabs, but a Jewish preponderance as soon as the numbers of the race are sufficiently increased.” Not surprisingly, he then asked that only Jews should be allowed to bear arms. Clearly, the last thing the Zionists really wanted was that all the inhabitants of Palestine should have an equal say in running the country. Churchill declared, “The present form of government will continue for many years. Step by step we shall develop representative institutions leading to full self-government, but our children's children will have passed away before that is accomplished.” He knew that everything the Zionists were promising was going to be near impossible, and was all a pack of lies. Even if nobody lost their land, the Zionist program was unjust in principle because it denied majority political rights. Zionism could not allow the natives to exercise their political rights because it would mean the end of the Zionist enterprise, leaving them finished.

The terms of the British Mandate over Palestine set up unjust, unfair, goals of self-rule for the Palestinians. Britain provided the establishment of a Jewish agency to be, recognized as, “A public body for the purpose of advising and cooperating with the Administration of Palestine in such economic, social, and other matters as may affect the establishment of the Jewish population in Palestine.” The facilitation of the immigration of Jews to Palestine, and the close settlement by Jews on the Land caused problems. The Mandate agreement was vastly made with clauses that favored the Zionist cause over Palestinian. The Zionist project was laden with contradictions and conflicts with the Palestinian natives and occasionally the British Mandate administration, but in the final analysis its implementation was quite successful. Factors that led to this success included demographic transformation, land acquisition, a separate Jewish economy, special Jewish labor, separate social and political institutions, and the creation of a Jewish state within a state just to name a few.

Palestine in 1882 had a small, native, and migrant religious Jewish community of roughly 24,000 among a Palestinian population of nearly 500,000. There were several waves of politically inspired immigration into the country. The first occurred between 1882 and 1903 and totaled about 25,000. The second, between 1904 and 1914, brought in around 35,000 immigrants, which resulted in a total Jewish population of 85,000. The third wave between 1919 and 1923 brought another 85,000 immigrants, mostly Polish and middle class. The December 1931 British census of the country showed that of the 1.04 million people, 84 percent were Arab and 16 percent were Jewish. While the increase in the Jewish population was due largely to in-migration, the Palestinian population increased naturally at 2.7 percent per year. Because of the rise of Nazism, 174,000 Jews migrated to Palestine between 1932 and 1936. Suddenly the Jewish population in Palestine rose to an estimated 28 percent of the total inhabitants. This radical change, occurring in a brief span of only five years, must certainly be recognized as an important cause of the Palestinian Arab rebellion of 1936 against British Mandate authorities. Both legal and illegal Jewish immigration (according to Mandate authorities) into Palestine increased during World War II and its aftermath. By the end of 1947, Palestine Mandate government estimates indicate that of a total population of 1.9 million, Jews made up only 31 percent. Thus, only a year before the state of Israel was unilaterally declared, the Jewish population constituted less than one-third the total inhabitants. Nevertheless, the Jewish minority in Palestine became a powerful community.

Despite their contention that Palestine was a land without people, Zionists discovered that Palestinian land was not uninhabited nor was it readily available. Palestine was densely populated and intensively cultivated. Moreover, the land tenure and ownership system was complex. Available land was expensive and became more so with the rising demand of a population growing as a result of both natural increase in-migration. With the establishment of the Palestine Mandate, Zionist hopes that state land—perceived as vast and potentially accessible—would serve as a basis for land acquisition also turned out to be unrealistic. From the data, it is possible to discern three periods of land acquisition by Zionists and Jews. While Jews in 1922 owned 3 percent of the land of Palestine, the additional land purchased by 1947 raised the total owned by the immigrant Jews to 7 percent of the whole area of the country. The British Mandate government classified Palestinian land as good, medium, and poor. After the general armistice of the 1948 war, Israel had captured over 77 percent of Palestine and more than 95 percent of the “good” soil. The newly sovereign state of Israel also expropriated 80 percent of privately owned Palestinian land and confiscated at least 40 percent of properties held by Palestinian Arabs who remained on the land and became citizens. The total losses of Palestinians are estimated at a staggering 7.43 billion Palestinian pounds (equal then to the British pound).

The roots of Jewish separatism within Palestine extend from the first decade of the Mandate. British policy of economic development in Palestine, and specifically, of granting Jewish settlers monopolistic concessions and industrial protectionism facilitated the building of an exclusive Jewish economy, little connected to the overall Palestinian economy. British Mandate government policy advantaged Jewish industry at the expense of Palestinian industry. The result of this situation for Arab industrial development was that Jewish-owned industry grew in light industries in which Arabs were trying to make headway. Thus, the Jewish sector came into direct competition with the Arab sector. Although Palestine has a primarily agricultural economy, especially in the Palestinian Arab sector, the Jewish community acquired only 7 percent of its food from the Arab sector in 1939 and 6 percent in 1944.

The initial Zionist project of redemption of the land with Jewish labor quickly transformed during the Mandate period into the development of an urban and industrial Jewish economy and labor force. As in the development of an exclusive Jewish economy, institutions, and land base, the British colonial government of Palestine contributed to the creation, protection, and unemployment relief of exclusive Jewish labor. The British did not, however, extend the same policy to the Palestinian Arab labor force. Further, the British facilitated the creation of a two-tier wage structure of Palestinian Arabs and Jews in both the private and public sectors. These discriminatory labor policies handicapped Palestinian labor in wage levels and working conditions. The principal means through which the Zionists succeeded in building a separate and privileged labor force was the Histradrut, the General Federation of Jewish Labor, established in 1920, which also owned construction, consumer, banking, and marketing cooperatives.

The Histadrut was perhaps one of the most developed Jewish social institutions in Palestine. Among many activities of this unique union were health insurance programs, training and education programs, job placement and pension programs. Like other practices of Zionists, these social institutions were exclusive to Jews. One of the most important factors in recreating the Jewish national identity was their educational system. In the Mandate agreement, Zionists won from the British and the League of Nations the recognition of Hebrew as an official language, along with Arabic and English. They also acquired British consent and support for a separate and exclusive private Jewish school system. Zionists gained autonomy over the curriculum, which was imbued with Jewish nationalism. The British Mandate government denied these freedoms and financial support to the Palestinian Arabs. Palestine’s educational system for the two communities under the Mandate was separate and unequal in terms of quality, financing, levels of education, and delivery. The British Mandate government’s Religious Communities Organization Ordinance promulgated separation of the two communities in 1926. It granted the Jewish settler community in Palestine a juridical personality and the power of taxation for charitable and educational purposes.

The British authorized the establishment of the Jewish Agency to represent, lead, and negotiate on behalf of the Jewish settler community in Palestine on all aspects of British policy. In turn, the Jewish Agency established various social, economic and political agencies, institutions, and organizations—including military and intelligence. These organizations were the nucleus of an emerging autonomous Jewish political authority within the Palestine Mandate government. The Palestinian Arabs had no such centralized political agency, nor did the political leaders have the capacity to mobilize the population effectively on a national level. It was this well-organized, well-financed, and well-armed state-within-a-state political authority that defeated the Palestinian resistance an Arab expeditionary forces and conquered most of Palestine in 1948. In 1948, the Zionist movement unilaterally declared the state of Israel. The majority of the Palestinians became stateless refugees.

In an article published in the Washington Post in October 1978, Rabbi Hirsch of Jerusalem declared, “The 12th principle of our faith, I believe, is that the Messiah will gather the Jewish exiled who are dispersed throughout the nations of the world. Zionism is diametrically opposed to Judaism. Zionism wishes to define the Jewish people as a nationalistic entity.” The Zionists say, “Look here, God. We do not like exile. Take us back, and if you don't, we'll just roll up our sleeves and take ourselves back.” The Rabbi continues, “This, of course, is heresy. The Jewish people are charged by Divine oath not to force themselves back to the Holy Land against the wishes of those residing there.” The Jews also show just as much hate as the Zionists. The Zionists counter with, “A Jewish Home in Palestine built up on bayonets and oppression is not worth having, even though it succeed, whereas the very attempt to build it up peacefully, cooperatively, with understanding, education, and good will, is worth a great deal even though the attempt should fail.” Judah L Magnes.

Gandhi put it well, and summed up what was happening at the time saying, “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. If the Jews must look to Palestine as their geographical national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses; I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds."

I agree with most of what Gandhi is saying, the situation is blown out of proportion. It will not be resolved in any way, shape or form without major conflict. Neither side is backing down whatsoever, and the deep down hatred the two sides have for each other is terrible. It is now in their blood to hate one another I think, so the cycle will continue for decades. Neither side will be happy with any kind of treaty or solution, plus, both sides are so extreme, bloodshed will be inevitable. The only immediate solution I can see is to blow them all up and start from scratch.