Fall of Jerusalem: British forces officially occupied Jerusalem from the Ottomans

 

On December 11, 1917, General Edmund Allenby, the high commander of the British military forces, entered Jerusalem and which marked the official end to Ottoman rule in Jerusalem after a period of 400 years (1517 to 1917 CE). General Allenby entered the Holy City on foot through the Jaffa Gate and the city became an occupied territory.

According to Aljazeera, on this historic occasion, Allenby reportedly declared that “the wars of the crusades are now complete”. Allenby's statement was a powerful reminder that the British entry into Jerusalem was both a continuation and a "successful" ending to the Crusades. Certainly, Allenby's argument establishes a fundamental epistemological link between the present British colonial enterprise in Palestine and the 11-14th century Crusades.

The Ottomans had officially surrendered two days earlier, on December 9, 1917 CE, and Jerusalem had been taken by the British following a long and violent battle between British and Ottoman forces. Hussein Selim al-Husayni, the city's mayor, handed over the keys to the British officers on behalf of the city's inhabitants.

One year later, in November 1918 CE, World War First (WW1) came to an end. At that time, the "Middle East" was split up into a number of different nation states, with the borders being determined by European powers.

Colonization project:

The 1917 British Occupation made it possible to implement the Balfour Declaration and construct a Jewish nation on Palestinian soil. Some of Zionism's strongest supporters, notably Lord Balfour, were anti-Semites. The main justification for backing Zionism was the theoretically created racist, prejudiced, and intolerable attitudes and policies of Europe toward Jews.

The 1948 Nakba led to the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians, but the British occupation in 1917 and the Mandate sealed Palestine's fate as the last colonial experiment. Following ethnic cleansing and expulsion, massacres, home demolitions, settlement expansions, land seizure, everyday brutality, attacks on al-Aqsa, and building an Apartheid Wall, Israel tormented the Palestinians. In this regard, Hatem Bazian writes “the last chapter of this story will be written by the Palestinians and their allies around the world and for sure it will praise freedom, dignity and the end of racist colonialism in Palestine.”

British Mandate for Palestine:

The Ottoman Empire gave the British control of Palestine and Transjordan after World War I ended in 1918. This was called the "Mandate for Palestine," and it was a League of Nations agreement. Following France's concession of the previously-agreed "international administration" of Palestine under the Sykes-Picot Agreement in the 1918 Clemenceau-Lloyd George Agreement, the mandate was given to Britain by the San Remo conference in April 1920. After the French overthrew the Arab Kingdom in Damascus during the Franco-Syrian War, Transjordan was incorporated to the mandate. The mandate was in effect from September 29, 1923, to May 15, 1948, and from May 25, 1946, until civil administration commenced in Palestine and Transjordan, respectively.

The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939:

The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 was Palestine's first persistent armed rebellion in more than a century. Thousands of Arabs of various socioeconomic backgrounds were mobilized, and nationalistic sentiment was drove in the Arabic press, schools, and literary organizations. The insurrection began with spiritually and nationally motivated supporters of Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam, who was assassinated by the British in 1935.The British, struck surprised by the scale and severity of the insurrection, dispatched over 20,000 troops to Palestine, and by 1939, the Zionists had armed over 15,000 Jews in their own nationalist movement.

The Partition of Palestine and the Aftermath:

After considering alternatives, the United Nations suggested ending the mandate and partitioning Palestine into two separate states, one Palestinian Arab and one Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized (Resolution 181 (II) of 1947). One of the two planned states, Israel, declared independence in 1948 and grew to 77% of mandate Palestine, including Jerusalem. More over half of the Arab Palestinian population fled or was expelled. The remaining region given to the Arab State in resolution 181 was governed by Jordan and Egypt. Israel occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967, including East Jerusalem, which it annexed. About half a million Palestinians left their homes again because of the war. Resolution 242 (1967) outlined the principles of a just and enduring peace, including an Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands, a just refugee settlement, and the end of all claims or states of militarization.

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