CLEVELAND+Chapter+13+The+Mandate+for+Palestine

CLEVELAND Chapter 13: page 238 The Mandate for Palestine: British Administration” to page 244 “The Jewish Community: Leadership and Institutions.”
 * The territory that became the Palestine mandate was regarded as part of southern Syria and was divided between provinces of Beirut and Damascus and the special administrative unit of Jerusalem.
 * Faysal of Syria never agreed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The Faysal/ Weizmann agreement was violated when the French occupied Syria.
 * San Remo Conference awarded Britain the mandate for Palestine in 1920. A year later the League of Nations made a formal sanction and added provisions that raised Zionist expectations it also made Hebrew the official language of Palestine which enraged the Muslim Palestinians.
 * Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew, was appointed high commissioner of the Palestine mandate in 1920 further encouraging Zionist immigration and Jewish wishes. He desired Palestine to become a Jewish state.
 * The Balfour Declaration stated that the “rights and privileges of the existing non- Jewish communities in Palestine” are to be upheld. This was 85% of the population.
 * In 1922 the British issued a white paper that implemented “the development of a Jewish national home did not mean the imposition of Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole. However, it also conceded certain Zionist demands by declaring that the Jewish people had a right to be in Palestine and that Palestine should become a center in which the Jewish people as a whole could take pride on the grounds of religion and race”(Cleveland 240). This failed badly.
 * The white paper concluded that the mandate needed some type of high council composed of Muslims, Christians and Jewish representatives. This failed because the Arabs refused to participate as they said it was against the Balfour Agreements.
 * As a result the high commissioner (Samuel) and his officials were the only ones in charge of the mandate. They were grossly mis-informed and over their head.
 * “Palestine considerably different from the other Arab mandates and created an enormously complex challenge for the Palestinian elite. Not only did they have to confront British imperialism, Zionist determination, and the demands of their own constituents within the frontiers of the mandate, they also had to present the Palestinian case in the corridors of power in London, where none of them commanded the respect and influence that were accorded Weizmann”(242).
 * The Mufti of Jerusamlem was a responsible for Islamic affairs. Powerful position, and had large influence over Arabs in the region. Hajj Amin had this position during the mandate period, he was anti-Zionist but willing to work with the Brits.