David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion David Ben-GurionCHRONOLOGY

2 November 1917

Britain issues the Balfour Declaration support ing a Jewish "national home."

1922

The League of Nations approves the British Mandate for Palestine.

7 July 1937

Royal (Peel) Commission on Palestine recommends partition and the estabhshment of a Jewish state on onefifth

of the country's territory.

17 May 1939

The British government issues a White Paper limiting Jewish immigration and settlement.

MayNovember 1942

"Biltmore plan" for a Jewish state approved by a Zionist convention in New York and by the Jewish Agency Executive in Jerusalem.

1945

8 May

End of World War II.

22 May

British Labour Party conference at Blackpool decides on proZionist

PolicyThe Ottoman leaders saw Zionism as an attempt to subvert the Ottoman Empire. The British government desired to grant the Zionist movement a colonization charter, failing due to internal discord in the Zionist movement and Englnds withdrawal of the plan. -2Balfor Declaration

League of Nations made Britain Mandatory over Palestine in 1922, charging the British government with the task of preparing the local inhabitants for self-rule. -2

Mandate ensured British support for the creation os a Jewish National Home by encouraging immigration and dense settlement. In 1917 the Arabs of Palestine outnumbered the Jews by 10 1. -2Britain, who never easily gave up easily one of their colonial possessions, made the decision of gradual decolonization. The de-colonization process slowed as Arab nationalism grew and distractions including the rise of Italian facism an Hitlers rise to power.The Zionists plan was to develop the basic infrastructure for a state. The British government constantly had to choose between Jews and Arabs, unwilling to move towards an Arab self control. -5 Officail Zionist policy advocated parity between Arabs and Jews in governance parity was not a viable long term police as it implied the creation of a binational state. -5Peel Royal Commission maintained that the mandate had failed and that Palestine should be divided into two states, - jewish and Arab.