Zionism and the Jewish-Arab relationship in Mandatory Palestine

The period of the British Mandate over Palestine (1920–1948) was marked by rising tensions between the Jewish community (the Yishouv) and the Palestinian Arab population, within the framework established by the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in favor of a "Jewish national home." Growing Jewish immigration, land purchases, and the assertion of both peoples' national aspirations fueled recurring confrontations: the riots of 1920 and 1921, violence around the Western Wall in 1929, and the great Arab Revolt of 1936–1939. The British authorities attempted various solutions — commissions of inquiry, the partition plan of the Peel Commission (1937), the White Paper of 1939 limiting Jewish immigration — without succeeding in reconciling the competing claims. A few voices, such as those of Judah Magnes, rector of the Hebrew University, and of the Brit Shalom movement, argued for a binational state and Jewish-Arab coexistence, but remained a minority without lasting effect. The failure of these attempts opened the way to the UN partition plan of 1947 and the war of 1948.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗