the british try to colonize palestine
previously, on TWR’s hottakes…
we met hussein, the arab leader of makkah, who the brits promise rule and independence over the levant, including palestine
we read the balfour declaration, in which the brits promise a jewish homeland in palestine to zionist activists
and we saw how the brits screwed everyone over by reneging on both contradictory promises and taking control of palestine as a “mandate”
the establishment of mandatory Palestine
as we discussed last week, the League of Nations (the predecessor to the UN) split up Germany's former colonies and the non-Turkish parts of the ottoman empire between France and the UK in 1920. in the middle east, the two powers mostly adopted the sykes-picot agreement, angering both the Palestinians and the Zionist movement.
an uneasy peace
in 1918, Muslims made up about 80% of the native population in the area, with Christians and Jews splitting the remainder about equally. throughout the 1920s, there was an uneasy peace between the two camps. Arab fears about a flood of Jewish immigration didn’t come true, as most European jews decided to emigrate to the US, not Palestine. by 1929, Palestinian jews made up about 15% of the population, a small increase from ten years prior.
the number of jewish immigrants per year
during this period, the British attempted to balance the Balfour declaration with the McMahon-Hussein correspondence. their formal policy was published in 1922, clarifying that the Balfour declaration did “not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home”, just...part of it. they also more or less refused to elaborate what a “national home” meant, and governed Palestine as one entity. apparently, the British thought if they confused the heck out of everyone, they’d just forget about the contradictory promises...
the Arab population mostly refused to participate in governmental institutions set up by the British because they would be forced to acknowledge the Balfour declaration. the British tried to organize elections, which were boycotted by the Arabs due to the high proportion of seats allocated to the Jewish population. various elected arab congresses took place during this time, none of which were recognized by the British. who knew the British could be so afraid of direct democracy?
however, the political leadership of the UK clearly began setting the scene for future conflicts. the first appointed governor was a well-known activist zionist, and began granting other zionists monopoly rights over various industries, such as building out an electric grid, operating gas pipelines, and mining minerals and salts. in line with the zionist theory, these companies hired only fellow zionists, leading to high unemployment among Arab tradesmen. the British were totally being neutral in this growing conflict, right?
What happened to Hussein?
loyal readers will remember Hussein, that dude from Makkah who got promised a pan-Arab homeland by the British for revolting against the Ottoman rule, right? well, the brits screwed him after WWI, and remarkably, would double-cross him once again. he, like most Arabs, refused to play ball with the British because of the Balfour declaration, including signing the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of the Arabs, which formally ended WWI. the British got peeved (as they do) and when the family of ibn Saud invaded makkah and madinah in 1924, they refused to fund or otherwise help Hussein out.
a drawing of hussein by the celebrated arab novelist, khalil gibran
Hussein got exiled, and ibn Saud created what we now know as Saudi Arabia. pan-Arabism would be dead for a good 30 years, which we’ll see. not everything was lost though - Abdullah, one of hussein’s sons, had been granted rule of Jordan, and began ruling it independently of the British by 1921. this’ll become important later - Abdullah and future Jordanian kings would always feel cheated out of ruling Makkah and Madinah, the two most holy cities in Islam. however, they could (and would) save face and get close to that goal by ruling Jerusalem, the third most holy city.
the tipping point in 1929
like we said, most of the 1920s in Palestine were relatively peaceful, with few incidents of violence or religious hatred. however, that tension was boiling just below the surface and exploded in august 1929. a large group of zionist protestors gathered at the Wailing Wall, a holy site shared by Muslims and Jews, singing what would become the israeli national anthem, hoisting zionist flags, shouting “the Wall is ours”, and insulting the prophet Muhammad. they apparently forgot about the Muslim kryptonite of throwing bacon at random bystanders.
the Wailing Wall, between and below the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques
the following week, the mufti of Jerusalem organized a larger than usual Friday sermon near the site, with thousands of Palestinians coming into town. rumors spread amongst both the Jewish and Muslim population of the city, and violence exploded, first in Jerusalem, then across Palestine. innocent Muslim and Jewish civilians were slaughtered, businesses were looted, and both mosques and synagogues were targeted for desecration. by the end of the month, hundreds of Jews and Muslims were dead or injured, in about equal proportion.
the aftermath
the British, as per usual, were totally incompetent. their military and police force could not prevent the violence and often made it worse. most of the Arabs who died were murdered by the British, not zionists. afterward, despite victims being equally spread between the two communities, more than 20 Arabs were sentenced to death, compared to just two zionists.
in response to the riots, the zionist population began to take self-defense much more seriously, and the Haganah was established. the Haganah was a paramilitary organization that eventually formed the core of the Israeli Defense Forces, its current military. the Haganah would quickly become well equipped with help and pączkis from the polish government (we’ll get into that next week).
the British decided to send some more pasty white guys down to Palestine to figure out what happened and published a report in 1930. the British realized the violence was caused by Arab fears of growing Jewish immigration overwhelming the natives and land being snapped up by zionists. economics also played a part, with discriminatory hiring practices preventing Arabs from working on land which used to belong to them. the British would limit Jewish immigration to the area for a couple of years, until...well...a dude with some serious mommy issues named Adolf took over Germany.
next time, on TWR’s hottakes…
we watch as Adolf creates an anti-semitic nightmare in Europe,
we explain how the British first came up with the idea of partitioning Palestine,
and we say cheerio to the British, God help them (because they’re all down in hell, of course)