ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the interactions among the British, the Zionists, and the Palestinian Arabs so as to illustrate the main issues of the mandate era. During the era of liberal nationalism, the states of Western Europe gradually adopted legislation to provide for the legal emancipation of the Jews. The British pledge to Sharif Husayn of Mecca and the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France constituted two of the principal proposals for dividing the Ottoman Empire among the Allies. The Balfour Declaration was another partition scheme. The Arab leaders rejected the plan, declaring that they would not serve in any constitutional government that did not annul the Balfour Declaration. In the interwar period, Palestinian Arab leadership was assumed by local urban notables whose power and prestige rested on their ownership of land and their domination of religious and municipal offices.