ABSTRACT
The British ruled Palestine for thirty years, from 1918 to 1948. During the first five years they ruled it de facto as a result of General Sir Edmund Allenby's rout of Turkish forces in the area toward the end of World War I. Their de jure rule began in 1922, when the newly formed League of Nations, recognizing 'the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine', awarded it to Great Britain with the understanding that the 'Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home'. 1 The British ended their stay in 1948, some six months after the United Nations (which had succeeded the League as world security organization) recommended an internationalized Jerusalem and the partition of what was left of the original Palestine of 1922 into two separate and independent states - one Arab, the other Jewish.
