ABSTRACT
The political history of Palestine under the Mandate, until the outbreak of war in 1939, may be divided into two periods. The earlier was one of growing Arab suspicion of the intentions of the Mandatory Power and fear of the visible increase of Jewish numbers and strength. The later was one of the translation to some extent of these suspicions into reality and of an intensification of the fears of the Arabs for their liberties and for their future. The political history of Palestine was chequered almost from the initiation of British civil rule. The population of Palestine on the British occupation was about 673,000, of whom less than 60,000 were Jews and the remainder, with few exceptions, Arabs. Politics in Palestine had been merely a matter of personalities. The Jews were accustomed to pray at the Wailing Wall, the only surviving relic of Herod's Temple, and the most sacred of the Jewish Holy Places.
