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between the world wars:
superpowers divide the ottoman empire
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| 1914 | Outbreak of World War I. The Sultan allies with the Axis powers, threatening Britain's Suez route to India. Arabs, in the person of Sherif Husein, ask if British aid would be given if the Arabs revolted against the Turks. | |
| 1915 | Britain agrees with Husein in the McMahon Letter that it would recognize Arab independence. However, to be exempted from Arab control was "Syria west of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo." [Later, the British would understand "Damascus" as a province, excluding all of Palestine, while the Arabs would take "Damascus" to mean the city, giving them control over all Palestine.] | |
| 1916 | The British, French, and Russians secretly negotiate the Sykes-Picot-Sazonov agreement: the Middle-East will be divided among them. This is a betrayal of the terms of the McMahon Letter. | |
| 1917 | With the war’s
shifting fortunes, Britain offers to make a pro-Zionist statement if
Zionists will ask for a British protectorate, thereby protecting Britain's
interests in the Suez. In November, the Balfour Declaration was issued,
stating:
"His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors 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." One month later, British and Arab forces take control of Palestine from the Turks. |
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| 1918 | The Arabs fail in a revolt against the British and French. Jewish refusal to aid them fuels Arab hostility. | |
| 1919 | Third aliyah begins. 25,000 Russian Jews immigrate in the next 5 years. | |
| 1921 | Violence between Arabs and Jews erupts, prompting the British to issue a White Paper which affirms the Balfour declaration but insists that the Jewish settlers must not plan to turn all of Palestine into a Jewish homeland. | |
| 1923 | The League of Nations ratifies British rule over Palestine, the British Mandate. Arabs boycott the Mandate government. | |
| 1924 | The Soviet Union bans Jewish emigration. | |
| 1925 | Fourth aliyah of 60,000 Polish Jews begins. It last three years. | |
| 1932 | The fifth and largest aliyah begins. 225,000 Jews emigrate to the Jewish settlements by 1939. One-third are from eastern Europe, one-third from Germany and Central Europe, escaping the rise of Nazism. | |
| 1936 | France gives independence to Syria and Lebanon after a series of revolts. Britain and France fear Arab ties to Nazis. | |
| 1936 | With Axis aid, Arab guerrillas attack Jewish settlers, who adopt a policy of non-reprisal to deter any British retreat from the Balfour Declaration. The British offer token aid against the increasing German and Italian funded attacks. | |
| 1939 | London Conference on Palestine fails. | |
| 1939 | Britain unilaterally issues a White Paper: 75,000 more Jewish immigrants to Palestine are to be allowed in the next five years, then no more. | |
| 1939 | World War II erupts. Arabs side with Hitler, Jews with Britain. | |
| 1945 | At the war's
end, the Jewish settlers expect the British White Paper of 1939 to be
rescinded because of their aid to Britain and because of 100,000 survivors
of the Shoah in Displaced Persons camps.
League of Arab States formed with headquarters in Cairo. |
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| 1946 | Britain announces it will not permit Jewish survivors of the Shoah to immigrate into Palestine. It apparently is motivated by fears of Arab moves against much needed Middle East oil. | |
| 1947 | Amid increasing violence between Arabs and Jews and against British forces, Britain decides to refer the Palestine problem to the United Nations. | |
