Thursday, March 28, 2024 6:22:15 AM
Did Britain ever promise to give Arabs their own state in Palestine?
"The Tyranny of Expectations
"Israel Must Decide Where It’s Going—and Who Should Lead It There""
[...]
Doug Sandlin·
have studied issues related to Palestine for many years. 5y
Related: - Why did the British not tell the Arabs in Palestine and neighboring countries that they want to create the state of Israel?
Mostly because they didn’t want to create the state of Israel. This is a position the British stated
very clearly and explicitly, to the point that it’s rather amazing that many people see it otherwise.
Let’s look at the supporting historical facts.
In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour declaration, which read as follows:
---
“His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
---
Source: Balfour Declaration - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
It is important to remember that at that time, Palestine was governed by the Ottoman empire,
which Britain was fighting against, along with its allies, in World War I.
And so, this statement of support is solely that - a statement of support for a “national home” - and not a Jewish state, per the remainder of the declaration regarding the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” which constituted over 90% of Palestine’s population, in 1917.
Image Source: Population Statistics - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - ProCon.org ..
https://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000636
After WWI ended, the British government received the mandate to govern Palestine from the League of Nations.
The legal articles of the Mandate made it clear that no residents of Palestine could be discriminated against on the basis of their religion.
---
"Article 15 required the mandatory administration to see to it that complete freedom of conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship were permitted. Article 15 stated that "No discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants of Palestine on the ground of race, religion or language. No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief."
The High Commissioner established the authority of the Orthodox Rabbinate over the members of the Jewish community and retained a modified version of the old Ottoman Millet system. Formal recognition was extended to eleven religious communities, which did not include the non-Orthodox Jewish or Protestant Christian denominations.
The proviso to the objective of the mandate was that "nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".
---
Source: British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument) - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine_(legal_instrument)#National_home_for_the_Jewish_people_(Preamble_and_Articles_2%2C_4%2C_6%2C_7%2C_11)
However, even then, many Zionist immigrants inferred, and many native Arab residents, both Muslim and Christian, feared, that the British did, indeed, support the idea of a Jewish state.
And so, the British government once again clarified their position in their 1922 white paper on Palestine, in terms of what was meant by the language of 1917’s Balfour Declaration.
---
“When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride.
But in order that this community should have the best prospect of free development and provide a full opportunity for the Jewish people to display its capacities, it is essential that it should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on the sufferance.
That is the reason why it is necessary that the existence of a Jewish National Home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed, and that it should be formally recognized to rest upon ancient historic connection.
This, then, is the interpretation which His Majesty's Government place upon the Declaration of 1917
, and, so understood, the Secretary of State is of opinion that it does not contain or imply anything which need cause either alarm to the Arab population of Palestine or disappointment to the Jews.”
---
Source: British White Paper of June 1922 ..
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1922.asp
Even then, though, as Zionist Jewish immigration from Europe continued to increase, and local
Arabs felt more and more disenfranchised, the British position was not clearly understood.
And so, in 1939, the British government issued a white paper with the most explicit language to date.
---
“His Majesty's Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.
They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will.”
---
Source: British White Paper of 1939 ..
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1939.asp
Zionist immigrants were not the least bit pleased - to the point of initiating a campaign of increasingly violent terrorist attacks against the British government of Palestine and Arab communities in Palestine, which lasted beyond the official final departure of the British from Palestine on May 14, 1948.
---
“Zionist groups in Palestine immediately rejected the White Paper and began a campaign of attacks on government property and Arab civilians which lasted for several months. On 18 May a Jewish general strike was called.”
"In response to the White Paper, the right-wing Zionist militant group Irgun began formulating plans for a rebellion to evict the British and establish an independent Jewish state.
Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Irgun, who had been exiled from Palestine by the British, proposed a plan for a revolt to take place in October 1939, which he sent to the Irgun High Command in six coded letters. Under Jabotinsky's plan, he, together with other "illegals", would arrive in Palestine by boat, and the Irgun would help him and other passengers escape.
Next, the Irgun would raid and occupy Government House, as well as other British centers of power in Palestine, raise the Jewish national flag, and hold them for at least 24 hours even at a heavy cost. Simultaneously, Zionist leaders in Western Europe and the United States would proclaim an independent Jewish state in Palestine, and would function as a government-in-exile.
Irgun seriously considered carrying out the plan, but was concerned over the heavy losses it would doubtless incur. Irgun leader Avraham Stern (who would later break from Irgun to form Lehi), formed a plan for 40,000 armed Jewish fighters recruited in Europe to sail to Palestine and join the rebellion.
The Polish government supported his plan, and began training Jews and setting aside weaponry for them. However, the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 quickly put an end to these plans."
“After the outbreak of war in September 1939, the head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine David Ben-Gurion declared: 'We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.'”
---
Source: White Paper of 1939 - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939#Zionist_Reactions
In 1944, while WWII was still taking place, the Jewish terrorist group Lehi, led by future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, assassinated Lord Moyne, the regional governor responsible for Palestine, based in Cairo, Egypt.
---
"According to Yaakov Banai (Mazal), who served as the commander of the fighting unit of Lehi, there were three purposes in the assassination:
To show the world that this conflict was not between a government and its citizens as Britain had tried to show but between citizens and a foreign ruler.
To demonstrate that the conflict was between the Jewish people and the British Imperialism.
To take the "War of Liberation" out of the Land of Israel and the Yishuv. The trial was not planned, but the action had to capture a place in the world press and lead political thoughts."
---
Source: Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Guinness,_1st_Baron_Moyne#Assassination
Decades later, in a 1993 interview, after he had stepped down as leader of Likud, Israel’s conservative party,
Yitzhak Shamir explained why they had murdered Lord Moyne:
“Lord Moyne was very strongly against us, against a Jewish State. “
Source: Yitzhak Shamir: Why we killed Lord Moyne ..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/yitzhak-shamir-why-we-killed-lord-moyne/
In 1946, the Jewish terrorist group Irgun, led by future Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in human history, to that point in time - the bombing of Jerusalem’s King David hotel, which was the headquarters of the British government of Palestine.
---
"The King David Hotel bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on Monday, July 22, 1946, by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun on the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
91 people of various nationalities were killed, and 46 were injured.
The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan.”
---
Source: King David Hotel bombing - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing
Far from supporting a Jewish state, the British government of Palestine was unequivocally against its establishment, knowing that
it would be untenable and unethical to perpetrate against the existing non-Jewish majority, both Christian and Muslim, in Palestine.
And for that consistent view, the British paid with a tragic amount of blood, and finally threw in the towel, and ended the mandate to govern Palestine, and handed responsibility for relevant decisions over to the just-created United Nations.
---
“The plot against Barker is only one of hundreds of plans described in the newly public files that detail how British officials were tormented by the militants. The official British attitude toward the Jewish underground is summed up on the file’s title page: “Jewish Terrorist Activities in the Middle East.”
British influence was waning and the militants sensed a lack of resolve that could be exploited, said Saul Zadka, author of “Blood in Zion: How the Jewish Guerrillas drove the British Out of Palestine.”
“They realized getting rid of the British was the key to establishing Jewish sovereignty in Palestine,” he said.”
---
Source: UK opens secret files on 1940s ‘Jewish terrorists’ in Palestine and beyond ..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-opens-secret-files-about-jewish-terrorists-in-1940s/
The British completed there withdrawal on May 14, 1948, and the existence of the Jewish state was unilaterally declared.
---
"On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel”.
---
Source: State of Israel proclaimed - May 14, 1948 - HISTORY.com ..
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/state-of-israel-proclaimed
https://www.quora.com/Did-Britain-ever-promise-to-give-Arabs-their-own-state-in-Palestine
"The Tyranny of Expectations
"Israel Must Decide Where It’s Going—and Who Should Lead It There""
[...]
Doug Sandlin·
have studied issues related to Palestine for many years. 5y
Related: - Why did the British not tell the Arabs in Palestine and neighboring countries that they want to create the state of Israel?
Mostly because they didn’t want to create the state of Israel. This is a position the British stated
very clearly and explicitly, to the point that it’s rather amazing that many people see it otherwise.
Let’s look at the supporting historical facts.
In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour declaration, which read as follows:
---
“His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
---
Source: Balfour Declaration - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
It is important to remember that at that time, Palestine was governed by the Ottoman empire,
which Britain was fighting against, along with its allies, in World War I.
And so, this statement of support is solely that - a statement of support for a “national home” - and not a Jewish state, per the remainder of the declaration regarding the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” which constituted over 90% of Palestine’s population, in 1917.
Image Source: Population Statistics - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - ProCon.org ..
https://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000636
After WWI ended, the British government received the mandate to govern Palestine from the League of Nations.
The legal articles of the Mandate made it clear that no residents of Palestine could be discriminated against on the basis of their religion.
---
"Article 15 required the mandatory administration to see to it that complete freedom of conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship were permitted. Article 15 stated that "No discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants of Palestine on the ground of race, religion or language. No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief."
The High Commissioner established the authority of the Orthodox Rabbinate over the members of the Jewish community and retained a modified version of the old Ottoman Millet system. Formal recognition was extended to eleven religious communities, which did not include the non-Orthodox Jewish or Protestant Christian denominations.
The proviso to the objective of the mandate was that "nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".
---
Source: British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument) - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine_(legal_instrument)#National_home_for_the_Jewish_people_(Preamble_and_Articles_2%2C_4%2C_6%2C_7%2C_11)
However, even then, many Zionist immigrants inferred, and many native Arab residents, both Muslim and Christian, feared, that the British did, indeed, support the idea of a Jewish state.
And so, the British government once again clarified their position in their 1922 white paper on Palestine, in terms of what was meant by the language of 1917’s Balfour Declaration.
---
“When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride.
But in order that this community should have the best prospect of free development and provide a full opportunity for the Jewish people to display its capacities, it is essential that it should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on the sufferance.
That is the reason why it is necessary that the existence of a Jewish National Home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed, and that it should be formally recognized to rest upon ancient historic connection.
This, then, is the interpretation which His Majesty's Government place upon the Declaration of 1917
, and, so understood, the Secretary of State is of opinion that it does not contain or imply anything which need cause either alarm to the Arab population of Palestine or disappointment to the Jews.”
---
Source: British White Paper of June 1922 ..
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1922.asp
Even then, though, as Zionist Jewish immigration from Europe continued to increase, and local
Arabs felt more and more disenfranchised, the British position was not clearly understood.
And so, in 1939, the British government issued a white paper with the most explicit language to date.
---
“His Majesty's Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.
They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will.”
---
Source: British White Paper of 1939 ..
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1939.asp
Zionist immigrants were not the least bit pleased - to the point of initiating a campaign of increasingly violent terrorist attacks against the British government of Palestine and Arab communities in Palestine, which lasted beyond the official final departure of the British from Palestine on May 14, 1948.
---
“Zionist groups in Palestine immediately rejected the White Paper and began a campaign of attacks on government property and Arab civilians which lasted for several months. On 18 May a Jewish general strike was called.”
"In response to the White Paper, the right-wing Zionist militant group Irgun began formulating plans for a rebellion to evict the British and establish an independent Jewish state.
Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Irgun, who had been exiled from Palestine by the British, proposed a plan for a revolt to take place in October 1939, which he sent to the Irgun High Command in six coded letters. Under Jabotinsky's plan, he, together with other "illegals", would arrive in Palestine by boat, and the Irgun would help him and other passengers escape.
Next, the Irgun would raid and occupy Government House, as well as other British centers of power in Palestine, raise the Jewish national flag, and hold them for at least 24 hours even at a heavy cost. Simultaneously, Zionist leaders in Western Europe and the United States would proclaim an independent Jewish state in Palestine, and would function as a government-in-exile.
Irgun seriously considered carrying out the plan, but was concerned over the heavy losses it would doubtless incur. Irgun leader Avraham Stern (who would later break from Irgun to form Lehi), formed a plan for 40,000 armed Jewish fighters recruited in Europe to sail to Palestine and join the rebellion.
The Polish government supported his plan, and began training Jews and setting aside weaponry for them. However, the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 quickly put an end to these plans."
“After the outbreak of war in September 1939, the head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine David Ben-Gurion declared: 'We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.'”
---
Source: White Paper of 1939 - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939#Zionist_Reactions
In 1944, while WWII was still taking place, the Jewish terrorist group Lehi, led by future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, assassinated Lord Moyne, the regional governor responsible for Palestine, based in Cairo, Egypt.
---
"According to Yaakov Banai (Mazal), who served as the commander of the fighting unit of Lehi, there were three purposes in the assassination:
To show the world that this conflict was not between a government and its citizens as Britain had tried to show but between citizens and a foreign ruler.
To demonstrate that the conflict was between the Jewish people and the British Imperialism.
To take the "War of Liberation" out of the Land of Israel and the Yishuv. The trial was not planned, but the action had to capture a place in the world press and lead political thoughts."
---
Source: Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Guinness,_1st_Baron_Moyne#Assassination
Decades later, in a 1993 interview, after he had stepped down as leader of Likud, Israel’s conservative party,
Yitzhak Shamir explained why they had murdered Lord Moyne:
“Lord Moyne was very strongly against us, against a Jewish State. “
Source: Yitzhak Shamir: Why we killed Lord Moyne ..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/yitzhak-shamir-why-we-killed-lord-moyne/
In 1946, the Jewish terrorist group Irgun, led by future Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in human history, to that point in time - the bombing of Jerusalem’s King David hotel, which was the headquarters of the British government of Palestine.
---
"The King David Hotel bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on Monday, July 22, 1946, by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun on the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
91 people of various nationalities were killed, and 46 were injured.
The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan.”
---
Source: King David Hotel bombing - Wikipedia ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing
Far from supporting a Jewish state, the British government of Palestine was unequivocally against its establishment, knowing that
it would be untenable and unethical to perpetrate against the existing non-Jewish majority, both Christian and Muslim, in Palestine.
And for that consistent view, the British paid with a tragic amount of blood, and finally threw in the towel, and ended the mandate to govern Palestine, and handed responsibility for relevant decisions over to the just-created United Nations.
---
“The plot against Barker is only one of hundreds of plans described in the newly public files that detail how British officials were tormented by the militants. The official British attitude toward the Jewish underground is summed up on the file’s title page: “Jewish Terrorist Activities in the Middle East.”
British influence was waning and the militants sensed a lack of resolve that could be exploited, said Saul Zadka, author of “Blood in Zion: How the Jewish Guerrillas drove the British Out of Palestine.”
“They realized getting rid of the British was the key to establishing Jewish sovereignty in Palestine,” he said.”
---
Source: UK opens secret files on 1940s ‘Jewish terrorists’ in Palestine and beyond ..
https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-opens-secret-files-about-jewish-terrorists-in-1940s/
The British completed there withdrawal on May 14, 1948, and the existence of the Jewish state was unilaterally declared.
---
"On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel”.
---
Source: State of Israel proclaimed - May 14, 1948 - HISTORY.com ..
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/state-of-israel-proclaimed
https://www.quora.com/Did-Britain-ever-promise-to-give-Arabs-their-own-state-in-Palestine
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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