The British Mandate PRT 3—The Palestine Mandate

From the Balfour Declaration, which declared that within Palestine there will be a national home for Jews, came the Palestine Mandate which split up the territories accordingly under British rule.

The new map of the Middle-East was drawn up by Britain and France:

• The powerful Ottoman Empire was replaced by a small ethnic Turkish state known as Anatolia.


• Syria and Lebanon became mandates under the rule of France


• Iraq became a League of Nations Mandate under British rule


• Palestine became a British Mandate instead of an international Mandate

At first present day Jordan was included under the British Mandate, however, Britain was still trying to fix and settle out their previous commitments. Thus, Britain decided to organize the territory east of the Jordan River (77% of the area) as a semi-autonomous territory known as “Transjordan” under the rule of Abdullah ibn Husayn, a son of Sharif Husayn; Faysal ibn Husayn was given a new created throne in Iraq.

The remanding 23% of the original territory, which is located west of the Jordan River, between international borders of Egypt on the south and Lebanon and Syria on the north, became the final Palestine Mandate.

Sources:

Dowty, Alan . Israel/Palestine. 2nd. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2008.