Palestine · A closer look
1922
The Mandate
The League of Nations confirmed Britain's Mandate over Palestine and wrote the Balfour promise into its terms. Palestinians petitioned, struck and formed congresses; their demand for a representative government was refused. As persecution in Europe grew in the 1930s, Jewish immigration rose sharply, and with it the fear of dispossession.
The terms of British rule
The League of Nations approved the Mandate in July 1922; it formally came into force in 1923. Its articles gave Britain extensive powers of legislation and administration. They also required it to create conditions for the Jewish national home and to safeguard the civil and religious rights of the population. The text is essential to understanding the political conflict: it placed those obligations within the same governing instrument.
Source: UN Digital Library: Text of the Mandate for Palestine
Representation and immigration
The Mandate provided for recognition of a Jewish agency to advise and cooperate with the administration. It also called for facilitating Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and encouraging settlement on the land, while protecting the rights and position of other inhabitants. These provisions had practical consequences for institutions, migration and land policy. They did not establish an independent government accountable to a representative electorate across Palestine.
Source: UN Digital Library: Text of the Mandate for Palestine
The problem Britain could not resolve
Palestinian opposition developed through petitions, congresses, demonstrations and resistance to British policy. Meanwhile, persecution of Jews in Europe, especially under Nazism, added urgency to the demand for refuge and migration. British commissions and policy revisions repeatedly tried to reconcile incompatible expectations about the country's future. By the end of the Mandate, Britain had built an administration but had failed to secure a political settlement accepted by both national movements.
Source: UN: Origins and evolution of the Palestine problem, 1917–1947