Iv from the Turkish Conquest to 1918

British Military Occupation.

The British occupation, es tablished of ter the conquest of the country by the British forces under General Allenby in 1917, found a depleted popula tion, the townspeople distressed, much cultivated land untilled, stocks of cattle and horses almost non-existent, orange groves ruined by lack of irrigation and commerce at a standstill. Immed iately on the occupation of Jerusalem (Dec. 11, 1917), a mili tary administration was set up, with military governors at Jeru salem and elsewhere ; food was hurried up by military transport for the populace, and merchants were permitted to import goods from Egypt by the military railway. In accordance with General Allenby's proclamation, all existing rights in holy places were respected and maintained; further, the income of the Muslim Wakfs (pious foundations) was used exclusively for the Muslim beneficiaries in Palestine instead of being drained away to Con stantinople. The administration was, from the outset, financially self-supporting. A local police force was built up, schools and law courts were re-opened, and, in April 1918, a water supply for Jerusalem, utilizing springs employed for the same purpose in the days of Herod and Pontius Pilate, was installed.

Zionism.

On Nov. 2, 1917, some five weeks before Lord Allenby's entry into Jerusalem, Lord (then Mr. Arthur) Balfour, at that time foreign secretary, had made on behalf of the British Government the following historic declaration : His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of that object, it being understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by the Jews in any other country.

The declaration was endorsed by the principal Allied Powers and embodied in the Treaty of Sevres, where it was provided that the country should be entrusted to a mandatory Power with a mandate to be approved by the League of Nations. After the Balfour declaration the Zionist organization sent a commission, subsequently constituted as a part of the Zionist executive, to Palestine to act as a link between the British authorities and the Jewish population. This was developed so as to take charge of the larger Jewish interests, colonization, immigration, and edu cation in Palestine. The military administration was, from its in ception, assailed with demands on the one hand for an immediate and practical interpretation of the Balfour declaration, and on the other for a policy of entire negation until such time as that instrument should have been incorporated into some sort of man date formally adopted by the Powers.

The British Government not being in a position to issue even general instructions, the administration, left in a situation without precedent more or less to its own resources, was limited by the legal necessity of governing the country under Ottoman codes amplified by enactments under military law, according to the "laws and usages of war." Even so, however, two notable and, in the circumstances, exceptional steps were taken. Hebrew was recognized with English and Arabic as the third official language, as, with Latin and Greek, it had been in the time of Christ, and considerable agricultural loans were advanced to land-owners. At the same time various oppressive small taxes were abolished. The Jerusalem chamber of commerce was established and followed by others elsewhere. The unsightly wall which had been built across Constantine's Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem was removed. Early in 1920 the Muslim Nebi Musa celebrations were exploited as a manifestation of Arab national sentiment against the Zionist Jews, many of whose recent immigrants had excited animosity by unwise and tactless propaganda. Riots took place on April 4 and 5 in Jerusalem and raids were made upon Beisan and the British garrison at Semakh.

On July I, 1920, a civil Government was established with Sir Herbert Samuel as the first high commissioner of Palestine. But mutual suspicion continued, and with it further incidents; the Jerusalem riots of 1920 were succeeded next year by a serious outbreak in Jaffa and neighbourhood, and again by disturbances in the capital on the fourth anniversary of the declaration'.

A statement, issued as a White Paper by Winston Churchill, the colonial secretary, whose policy was formally and publicly accept ed by the Zionist organization, explicitly disclaimed the intention either of creating a wholly Jewish Palestine or of contemplating the disappearance or the subordination of the Arab population, language or culture.

The nationality to be acquired by all citizens of Palestine, whether Jews or non-Jews, whether for purposes of internal law or inter national status would be Palestinian and nothing else. . . . But in order that the Jewish community (in Palestine) should have the best prospect of free development it is essential that it should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on sufferance. That is the reason why it is necessary that the existence of a Jewish national home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed. . . .