The British Policy Towards Palestine And The Creation Of...

During the period of 1915-1948 the British Policy toward Palestine and the creation of Israel changed frequently in the period of 1915-1948. This can be seen in many documents and reports of the British Government and their correspondences with the Jewish, Arabs and German in their quest to gain allies and an independent Jewish State. Some of these documents include Der Judenstaat, The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate by the League of Nations and the British White Papers. The first push toward an independent Jewish State began in 1896 with the publication of a pamphlet called Der Judenstaat, written by Theodor Herzl. In Der Judenstaat, Herzl aspires for a peaceful creation of an independent†¦show more content†¦In October, 1915, McMahon wrote to Hussein on behalf of the British government about boundaries of the Arab state. The main point behind this document was that Britain would the Arabs to an Arab State, in return for their su pport as allies in World War One against the Ottoman Empire. In this letter, McMahon notes a few areas of Syria that would have to be excluded from the boundaries as ‘they cannot be said to be purely Arab’. This is the point at which the document greatly complicates the situation as the Arabs interpreted this as Britain promising Palestine to them at the end of the War. This document represents Britain making a ‘series of promises to the Arab people’, and convincing the Arabs to rise up and help Britain revolt against the Ottomans and Turks so that they could live freely. This document was written to gain allies for Britain and to help them expand their empire by befriending the Arabs and convincing them that they could help and protect them. The second document mentioned is the Sykes Picot Agreement, this was an agreement written in secret between Britain and France in which they ultimately divided the Middle East between themselves and Russia. This agreem ent was written whilst the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence was occurring and outlined the areas that would be under French,