The British Mandate of Palestine was a League of Nations mandate to the United Kingdom in Palestine. It began after the British had conquered Palestine from the Ottoman Empire in World War I. At the San Remo Conference, on April 25, 1920, the mandate for Palestine was granted to Britain. The mandate became officially operative on September 29, 1923. The mandate ended when the British returned it to the United Nations on May 15, 1948.
The mandate period was characterized by the conflicting nationalist interests and efforts of the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine. Because of the Balfour Declaration, the Mandatory government started off sympathetic to the Zionists. This led to displeasure in the Arab community in Palestine. The conflicting interests often led to violence, making it hard for the British to rule Palestine. Several times commissions investigated the problems in Palestine, and multiple White Papers came out in order to try solving the problems. In 1939 the British changed its position from the Balfour Declaration in favor of the Palestinian Arabs. However, after World War II, the international community pressed for both an Arab and a Jewish state in Palestine. When the British returned its mandate, the state of Israel was declared, on May 14, 1948. On the next day, the Arab-Israeli war began.
History
Beginning of the Mandate
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War I, a lot of territory of the former Ottoman Empire was left on its own. The Allied nations were worried about this. Western countries believed that these countries needed help until they were able to operate on their own. In 1917 Britain had conquered Palestine, also as a result of the Balfour Declaration in which the British declared their support for creating a “national home for the Jewish people”. Consequently, after the Western powers met in Paris, it was decided France would control the mandate for (present-day) Syria and Lebanon, and Britain would have the mandate for (present-day) Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq. From then on, the British army had an increased presence and ruled in Palestine until there was an official civil governing administration placed on July 1, 1920 as a result of the San Remo Conference on April 25, 1920. In this conference the mandate for Palestine and Trans-Jordan was granted to Great Britain by the main Allied Powers. This mandate was eventually formulated by the League of Nations and officially approved by the League Council on July 24, 1922. At this time, the territory of the Palestine mandate consisted of 15,000 square miles with a population of about one million, of which about 80,000 were Jewish inhabitants.
During the Mandate
1923-1936
After the mandate was approved by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922, the mandate became officially operative on September 29, 1923. This led to an increase in Jewish immigration, as about 95,510 thousand Jews immigrated to Palestine from 1920-1926. This was also due to the Balfour Declaration. However the Balfour Declaration also had an impact on the Arab nationalists in Palestine. There was a large increase in Palestinian nationalism, due to an increase in Zionist immigration and settlement. Because of this, riots broke out in 1929 between Zionists and Palestinian nationalists. This was in the form of mob violence in the cities, and in the form of assaults against settlers and sabotage of crops and land in the countryside. As a result of these disturbances between the two groups, two commissions were established by the British. One was the Shaw Commission(focused on finding the underlying conditions leading to the violence), and the other one was the Hope-Simpson Commission(whose goal was to create plans to deal with the problems found by the Shaw Commission). The conclusions of these commissions were put into a British ‘White Paper’. This White Paper included plans on how to in increase better economic conditions, and stressed that the British are to treat the Arabs and Jews equally. In 1933 Arab Executive Committee published a manifesto that spoke out against British and Zionist collaboration. In October 1933 the Arab Executive Committee wanted an anti-government demonstration in Jeruzalem, which caused an outburst of violence. This led to Jewish and Arab leaders having several meetings in 1934 in an effort to decrease their differences. However, this did not help, as rioting continued until 1936.