BRITAIN IN PALESTINE
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It was becoming clear to the British that favouring the Jews as called for by the Balfour Declaration was leading to increasing levels of tension and difficulties in governing the country. An attempt to reconsider how the Mandate was operated in Palestine led to a White Paper which set out to be more even-handed. The White Paper generated a huge backlash by Zionists in Britain, and the government beat a hasty retreat and disowned some of its own recommendations. In Palestine, this volte face, accompanied by increased levels of immigration, led to riots and attacks on government buildings and sowed the seed of what became known as the Arab Revolt.
“We must take over the land. We have a greater and nobler ideal than preserving several hundred thousands of Arab fellahin.”
– Menahem Ussiskin of the Jewish National Fund
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After a decade of sporadic violence, the British government took a detailed look at its Palestine policy, and the Colonial Secretary, Lord Passfield, wrote a White Paper. It supported the creation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, but not the turning of Palestine into a Jewish state. The White Paper also raised – again – the idea of a representative Legislative Council that would finally start the process of self-government nearly ten years after Britain acquired the Mandate.
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