B7, key topic 1 - Build up of tension in Palestine, 1917–46

Balfour And The Mandate

The key starting point is the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917. It was a letter from Arthur James Balfour, Britain's Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, a leading figure in the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation.

The declaration said that the British government viewed with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. It also said that nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status of Jews in other countries.

That wording mattered because it sounded supportive to Zionists but alarming to many Palestinian Arabs.

The declaration became more powerful after the First World War. Palestine had been part of the Ottoman Empire, but Britain occupied it during the war. In 1922, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate for Palestine. The Mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration and made Britain responsible for helping establish the Jewish national home while also developing self-governing institutions and protecting other communities.

This created a built-in problem. Zionists could argue that Britain had an international duty to help Jewish immigration and settlement. Palestinian Arabs could argue that they were the majority population and should gain independence, not be ruled under a Mandate that promoted a national home for another people.

Britain therefore became the referee and one of the causes of conflict at the same time. It had promised to protect different communities, but those communities increasingly wanted incompatible futures.

Immigration And Land Pressure

Jewish immigration was the most visible way the Balfour Declaration changed politics on the ground. The Jewish population of Palestine was not new; there had long been Jewish communities in places such as Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron. What changed under the Mandate was the scale, organisation and political meaning of immigration.

Many Jewish immigrants came because of Zionism: the belief that Jews should build a national home, and for many Zionists eventually a state, in Palestine. Others came because of persecution, insecurity and antisemitism in Europe. The 1930s made this much more urgent. After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, persecution of Jews in Germany and elsewhere in Europe pushed many to seek safety.

Recorded immigration figures show why Arab fears sharpened in the 1930s:

The figures rose and fell, but the surge from 1933 to 1935 was politically explosive. For Jews escaping persecution, immigration could look like survival and national revival. For many Palestinian Arabs, the same movement looked like a threat to their future majority, land, employment and independence.

Land made immigration even more sensitive. Zionist organisations and private buyers purchased land to create Jewish settlements, farms, towns and institutions. Some land was bought legally from Arab landowners, including absentee landlords who did not live on the land. But the effects could be painful for tenant farmers if land changed hands and they were evicted or lost access to work.

The issue was not only economic. It was also political. In a territory where future control might depend on population numbers and landholding, every immigrant and every land purchase seemed to shift the balance. Zionists saw settlement as building the national home. Palestinian Arabs often saw the same settlement as proof that Britain was allowing their country to be transformed without their consent.

A common misconception is that tension was simply religious. Religion mattered because Jerusalem and other holy places were sensitive, but the larger argument was about national control: who would decide Palestine's future, who could immigrate, who owned land, and what Britain was really promising.

Clashes And Communal Fear

Tension turned into violence several times before the Arab Revolt of 1936-39. These clashes did not all have the same immediate trigger, but they followed a pattern: a local incident could become a wider communal confrontation because people already feared what the Mandate was producing.

In April 1920, anti-Zionist riots broke out in Jerusalem. British authorities linked the unrest to Arab disappointment that wartime hopes of independence had not been fulfilled and to fears of a large influx of Jewish immigrants. The violence showed that the Balfour Declaration was not just a diplomatic document; it had become a local political grievance.

In May 1921, more serious violence broke out in Jaffa and spread to nearby Jewish communities. Jaffa was important because it was a port city and a point of entry for immigrants. Violence there symbolised the connection between immigration, urban competition and communal fear.

The most significant 1920s outbreak came in August 1929. A dispute over religious practices at the Western Wall in Jerusalem grew into serious communal clashes in Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. The Western Wall was sacred to Jews, while the wider Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount area was sacred to Muslims. A religious flashpoint therefore combined with political fear about immigration and national control.

The British Shaw Commission investigated the 1929 disturbances. It connected Arab hostility to disappointment over political and national aspirations and fear for economic future. This is useful because it shows how the causes overlapped:

The violence also changed how communities organised. The Jewish community developed self-defence institutions, including the Haganah. Palestinian Arab politics became more focused on resisting British policy, immigration and land sales. Each side could point to violence against its own community as proof that it needed stronger organisation.

This is the dangerous logic of communal fear: every clash made later compromise harder because it created memories of victimhood, suspicion and revenge.

Peel And Revolt

The Arab Revolt began in 1936 after years of growing tension. It started with a general strike and developed into a wider rebellion against British rule and Zionist settlement.

The main Arab demands were clear: stop Jewish immigration, stop land sales to Jews, and create an independent national government. These demands show why the revolt belongs in this lesson. It was not a random outbreak of violence. It was a direct response to the same problems created by the Balfour Declaration, immigration, land purchase and the Mandate.

The revolt had several forms: