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ABSTRACT
The article argues that most of the contentious issues which flared up during Britain's Mandate for Palestine, including Jewish immigration, ineffective policing, inadequate funding, ethno-religious violence, conflicting sympathies among British officials, and Arab displeasure over the Balfour Declaration, were already visible to Herbert Samuel, Winston Churchill and other British officials in the eighteen months before the Mandate officially began, and that the seeds of Britain's administrative failure in Palestine had already taken root.
Keywords: British Mandate, Balfour Declaration, Herbert Samuel, Winston Churchill, Nebi Musa Riots, Jaffa Riots, Palin Commission, Haycraft Commission, Richard Meinertzhagen, C. D. Brunton, Wyndham Deedes, Philip Graves, Peel Report.
INTRODUCTION
lONG HISTORIANS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, THERE IS A CONSENSUS that Britain's League of Nations Mandate for Palestine was a failure, a unique, short-lived, ill-conceived "sideshow"-to use Prime Minister David Lloyd George's term-with no economic value and minimal strategic purpose.1 Some of the scholarship on the ineptness of British rule in Palestine has focused on its nineteenth-century roots: Orientalist attitudes, the belief in a "civilizing mission," Lord Shaftesbury's Christian Restorationism, and the idea of a "last crusade."2 Other scholars have located the "original sin" of the Mandate in the seemingly conflicting promises Britain made to Arabs and Jews during WWI.3 At least a few have taken a more benign view, arguing that the British were simply unprepared for the challenges of Palestine and that however conscientious their efforts, British officials were ultimately "ploughing sand" in their efforts to nurture Arab-Jewish partnerships and construct a pluralist "composite state" from communities divided by religion, language, culture, and economics.4
Explanations of what went wrong have also highlighted Britain's inadequate policing, inconsistent policies on immigration, lack of financial commitment, and conflicting sympathies, as well as the rise ofArab nationalism.5 Yet all these issues flared up in the eighteen months before the British Mandate officially began. Moreover, they were visible to and discussed by the British. Official reports, memoranda, speeches, letters, and newspaper articles make clear that even before the famed Jaffa Riots of May 1921, and certainly in their wake, the British were fully aware of Arab displeasure over the Balfour Declaration and cognizant of their fears over what was meant by a "Jewish National Home." Additionally, High Commissioner Herbert Samuel's response to the...