Video: The Origins of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Balfour Declaration was signed in 1917. It set out British support for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. But when the Balfour declaration was signed the British had already promised Palestine to Arabs as an independent state and promised the French government that it would be an internationally administered zone – and even then, most of the land was still under Ottoman control. So why did Britain make these three conflicting promises? How did it try to resolve them? And how did Britain’s strategy in the Middle East help to cause a century of conflict?

PART I

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1936, British Mandatory Palestine was in flames. In response to rising Jewish immigration and economic dominance, Arab Palestinians revolted against the British attacking military installations and Jewish settlements. The British were scrambling for an answer. In our last episode, we explored Britain’s conflicting promises made during the First World War and how it tried to resolve them. In this episode we’ll examine how the Second World War transformed the conflict in Mandate Palestine once again. Why did Britain change its mind about a Jewish homeland, how did a Zionist underground insurgency defeat the British and how were the borders of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank created?

PART II