Year 11 Modern History: Case Study – The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Jewish and Arab Responses to the Balfour Declaration

There is a strong argument suggesting that the Balfour Declaration laid the foundationsfor the current
Arab–Israeli conflict. The Arabs had helped the British defeat the Turks in the First World War, and saw the
Declaration as a clear betrayal of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence; this view has influenced a level
of distrust of the West from the Arabs ever since. In the eye of the Arabs, Britain was now encouraging
occupation of Arab land by people they believed had no right to it. For the Zionist movement, the Balfour
Declaration was interpreted as the green light for the occupation of Palestine. It was the start of the process
that culminated in the mass migration of Jews to the area, and the creation of the nation of Israel.

Historians debate the meaning of the Balfour Declaration, and there are areas that are certainly vague. No
mention is made of a specific state being created. What is not contested is that the Balfour Declaration
represented a victory for the Zionist view, and started a historical process that disenfranchised the Arab
population of the area in favour of Jewish migrants.

Palestine in the interwar period

When the First World War ended in 1918, the future
of the Middle East was determined at the Versailles
Peace Conference of 1919. US President Woodrow
Wilson was anxious to avoid a return to the old pre-
war habits of colonialism. The resulting compromise
was the League of Nations mandate system,
whereby the victorious powers would administer the
regions of the former empire until they were ready
for self-government.

Under this system, Syria and Lebanon became

mandates of France, while Britain became
responsible for Iraq and Greater Palestine. The
British divided the mandate of Greater Palestine into
two portions. The land to the east of the Jordan River
was renamed Trans-Jordan. The area between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River now became
known as the British Mandate of Palestine. For the
first time Palestine had defined frontiers.

The problem that now confronted the British as

administrators of Palestine was that if they allowed
any Jewish immigration, they would offend the Arab
residents who feared being overrun by Jews; yet if
they stopped or slowed Jewish immigration, there would be an outcry from Jews and their supporters
worldwide.

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 Year 11 Modern History: Case Study – The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Antisemitism in Europe and growing Jewish migration
The third wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine (the Third Aliyah) commenced soon after the
establishment of the British mandate. Those who did arrive in Palestine in the 1920s were mainly poor,
uneducated immigrants from the Ukraine or Poland, who had been forced to leave by anti-Semitic violence
or legislation. By the late 1920s, the Zionist hope of a national home built on a steady influx of immigrants
appeared to be in crisis. In 1927 twice as many Jews left Palestine as reached it.

The situation changed with the advent of Nazism in Germany. In 1932, there were 9553 Jewish immigrants
to Palestine; in 1933, there were more than 30 000, many of these from Germany, where Adolf Hitler had
come to power. Hitler regarded Jews as an inferior race and was determined to remove them from German
life. Jews in countries surrounding Germany
also felt threatened, and an exodus from
Europe began. Many countries were
unwillingto accept Jewish migrants, or
imposed strict quotas on their intake. For
large numbers of migrants, Palestine became
their only hope.

By 1940, Jews made up 40 per cent of the

population of Palestine, and the new wave of
immigrants from central Europe tended to
be better educated and wealthier than those
of the 1920s. However, the uneven but
continual growth of the Jewish population
had caused mutual distrust and antagonism
between the Jews and the Arabs, and
suspicion by both towards the ‘neutral’
mandatory power of Britain.

Questions
1. Examine Source 12. Discuss what it reveals about British and French attitudes towards Arab
nationalism and the Middle East. What does the source reveal about possible causes of the current
Arab–Israeli conflict?
2. Analyse Source 13. What implications does this sign on a German swimming pool in 1938 have for
current Arab–Israeli relations?
3. What do the terms laid out in the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence of 1915 suggest about the
extent of Arab independence and the British position in the Middle East?
4. How does the Balfour Declaration compare with the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence and the
Sykes–Picot Agreement?
5. Which countries were involved in making decisions regarding the future of the Middle East after the
First World War?
6. Explain the impact of the rise of Adolf Hitler on the Middle East in the 1930s.