British policy in Palestine in the first half of 20th century

Abstract

Present article examines British politics in Palestine in the context of the Arab-Jewish confrontation. Great Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, as well as the Arab uprising against Turkish rule during the First World War. By doing so it found itself bound by obligations with both conflicting parties after receiving a mandate to this territory. Being interested in reaching agreement between them, the United Kingdom made continuous efforts in that direction, which, however, not only were unsuccessful, but nourished anti-British feelings of both the Arab and Jewish communities. As an example one can be mention the failure of London conference in 1939, with participation of Arab and Jewish delegations, but both rejected British project of federal state in Palestine. Author of this study proposes arguments with the favor of idea, that British approach to resolving Palestinian situation was not successful due to the large number of actors interested in gaining control over Palestine: the Yishuv, rival factions of the Palestinian establishment, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian ruling classes. The United Kingdom, having failed to find a universal solution, finally preferred to give way to annexation of Arabian part of Palestine by Transjordan but in spite of that still failed to maintain its positions in the Middle East thanks to the tragic for Palestinians consequences of the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948.