Historical Analysis: Ottoman Empire, British Rule, and Palestine

This essay delves into the historical context of Palestine, examining the influence of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent British Mandate. It explores the key events, including the Balfour Declaration, the rise of Zionism, and the impact of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, often referred to as the Nakba. The essay analyzes the political, spatial, and cultural shifts that occurred as a result of these historical developments, including the displacement of Palestinian Arabs and the changing dynamics of the region. It also investigates the impact of the rise of Labor Zionism in the 1920s and how it changed the dynamics of the region. The essay draws on various sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex history and its enduring legacy on Palestine.

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Ottoman and the British
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Ottoman and the British
Introduction
Palestine was a component of Ottoman Syria before British rule. Up to the first of July
1920, Palestine was governed by British troops. At the San Remo Conference, Britain was given
the authority for Palestine on April 25, 1920. The League of Nations recognized this authority on
July 24, 1922. The British were handed a double mandate or led to acting both in the interests of
multilateralism and the people of Palestine. The Mandate for Palestine's prologue and second
clause references the Balfour Declaration. Thus, Britain had a "dual commitment" to Jews and
Arabs. Under other treaties, they had struck with their partners, the British set the boundaries of
Palestine. For instance, in appreciation for his assistance during the battle, they gave Abdullah
ibn Husayn of the Hashemite monarchy dominion over the eastern side of the Jordan River and
made him king.
The Influence on the 1948 War
The turning point in the contemporary history of the Palestinians was the first Arab-
Israeli conflict in 1948. The 1948 loss, often known as the Nakba, had a massive effect on
Palestinians since it changed Palestine and Palestinian heritage in several ways (Mahamid,
2020). No meaningful examination of Palestinian life today can be finished without knowledge
of the impacts of 1948. In terms of material destruction, the 1948 Nakba displaced nearly half of
the Arab population of Palestine as squatters, essentially destroying the Arab industry in
Palestine and leaving scores of communities empty.
When Israel forbade the refugees from going home, they were left to improve their
homes in the diaspora as most significant they would do as Palestine's landscape underwent a

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profound spatial shift that almost eliminated the Arab identity of the country itself and
demolished their communities (Mahamid, 2020). Politically, the conflict not only prevented
them from achieving the statehood envisaged by UN Resolution 181 of 1947, but it also resulted
in a change in leadership, the effects of which can still be seen in Palestinian current politics.
Furthermore, the 1948 legacy continues to influence the contours of Palestinian cultural and
scientific life, significantly impacting Palestinian political life.
The war and the flow of refugees fundamentally altered Palestinian spatial reality. The
refugees abandoned many communities; Israeli authorities ultimately razed these villages. Only
81 Palestinian towns survived Israel unscathed. Previously Palestinian and Jewish communities
in Israel became predominantly Jewish cities with tiny Palestinian communities after 1948.
Nazareth, the only Palestinian city in Israel, has a sizable Palestinian community. But the West
Bank and Gaza nonetheless retained their Arab identity.
Key Dates
In what is now Turkey, the Ottoman Empire first appeared in the 1300s. The Ottomans
seize the Arab territories between 1516 and 1517 (Pugh, 2019). Islam is one of the critical factors
gluing the various kingdom with each other. In actuality, the edicts of the sultan and Islamic law
are the sources of Ottoman law. However, the once-dominant Ottoman Empire begins to decline
in strength in the 1700s and 1800s. United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union started
meddling in the Ottoman Empire's territory and Egypt's quest to capture new lands.
The primarily upper-class Young Turk organization takes a stand out of worry for the
further concentration of power beneath Sultan Abdul Hamit and conviction that the Ottoman
Empire would perish due to the rising economic impact of foreign nations. The group's fugitive

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leadership mostly orchestrated the uprising from France, which was declared on July 6 (Masters,
2013). The soldiers ordered to put down any rebels are persuaded by the Young Turks to defy
their instructions. The party threatened the king with dethronement if he did not immediately
reinstate and enforce the legislation of 1876 and return to a legislative system of governance in a
telegram sent to him on July 21 (Pugh, 2019). The king declared the ancient legislation once
more in force on July 24.
The British pledged to assist in establishing a national homeland for Jews in Palestine in
1917 in the Balfour Declaration. Zionists have advocated for a new state of Jews in Palestine,
which is a part of the Jewish sacred place since the late 1800s (Pugh, 2019). Although the
Balfour Declaration's language is ambiguous, it suggests that Great Britain will aid the Zionists
in creating such a nation. The development of a national settlement for the Jews in Palestine is
something that His Majesty's Government supports, and they will make every effort to make this
goal easier to realize.
How the Rise of Labor Zionism in the 1920s changed the Dynamics
The Zionist organization aimed to form a Jew nation in Palestine during the Mandate era.
The native population of Palestine, whose ancestors had lived there for two thousand years prior,
believed that this design infringed on their inherent and unalienable rights. Additionally, they
saw it as a violation of the sovereignty guarantees offered to Arab leaders by the Allies in
exchange for their assistance during the conflict (Miccoli, 2022). Consequently, Palestinian Arab
opposition to the Mandate grew, and as the Second World War ended, the Jewish community
resorted to violence.

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Although there were instances of Arab-Jewish friction and violence during the Second
Aliya era, most Zionists might have chosen to overlook or downplay the subject of Arab-Jewish
interactions in Palestine during that time. A few decades later, such a mindset was wholly
unattainable. The British occupation of Palestine in World War I, the emergence of an Arab
nationalist movement under Hashemite governance that sought to create an independent Arab
state that included Palestine, the organization of the British Mandate, and the overwhelmingly
apparent beginnings in Palestine of structured Arab nationalist objection to Zionism and British
rule all needed the labor-Zionist organization to confront the Arab inquiry much more
straightforwardly.
Thus, it was believed that Zionism served the actual needs of the majority of the
Palestinian community, which were precisely defined in economic terms. Since Herzl, this has
been a recurring subject in Zionist rhetoric. Ben-Tzvi had to expand his assertion to deny the
validity of local anti-Zionism and nationalism by portraying them as tools. The artificially
imposed creative processes of a rightist elite eager to maintain its wealth and power because of
the presence of an expressly anti-Zionist Palestinian fascist party was, by this point in time,
however, indisputable (Miccoli, 2022). This was a more recent theme intended to address the
moral problems Marxist Zionism faced and provide its intellectual armory with arguments better
suited to dispelling skepticism and critique both inside the Yishuv and outside of it.
Conclusion
As a result of the First World War, the British Mandate over Palestine reflected the fall of
pre-war kingdoms and the rise of states calling for self-determination. The artificial divisions
implemented by the battle's winners still represent and impact the Middle East as it is today. The
Land was split into four divisions after the Ottoman invasion in 1517, linked legally to the region

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of Damascus, and controlled by Istanbul. As a result, the nation's Jews gradually improved their
situation, and their population rose significantly. By the middle of the 20th century, Jerusalem's
overcrowding forced the Jews to create the town's first community beyond the fortifications.

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References
Mahamid, F. A. (2020). Collective trauma, quality of life and resilience in narratives of third
generation Palestinian refugee children. Child Indicators Research, 13(6), 2181-2204.
Miccoli, D. (2022). A Sephardi Sea: Jewish Memories across the Modern Mediterranean. Indiana
University Press.
Pugh, M. (2019). Britain and Islam: A History from 622 to the Present Day. Yale University
Press.