Britain's Unfulfilled Mandate for Palestine

This book provides an in-depth survey of Britain’s Mandate in Palestine, an issue crucial to understanding the continuing atmosphere of mistrust and violence in the region that continues to the present.At the conclusion of the First World War (1914–18), the League of Nations awarded a Mandate to Great Britain, which entailed governing a part of the defunct Ottoman Empire, a part which became known as Palestine. The Mandate, empowering Britain to govern this area for an unspecified period, had as one of its main objectives the understanding that Britain would assist the Zionist Movement in the creation of a Homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.During the thirty years that Britain ruled Palestine, it made no serious effort to carry out this commitment. The author discusses a variety of reasons for this failure, but the greatest obstacle preventing it from fulfilling its Mandate was that Britain completely miscalculated the reaction of the large Arab majority in the country. In fear of repercussions from the growing Arab nationalism various British Governments over the years decided that their best interests would be served by appeasing the Palestine Arabs and reneging on the British promise to Zionism. As the author shows, Britain’s failure to fulfil its Mandate obligations was a major contribution to the problems that have persisted in the Middle East for decades.

The arguments presented in Britain's Unfulfilled Mandate for Palestine are new—in some cases, renewed—and important. For many years, the classical Zionist narrative posited a struggle between those striving for a Jewish State and the British administration of Palestine. At the same time, in the Palestinian and other Arab versions, the British were the villains and the Mandate the tool for the creation of Israel. Nick Reynold returns to a more balanced and nuanced account, whereby the British role was not manifestly pro-Zionist, but alternated between pro-Jewish and pro-Arab policies. Reynold has researched the subject with admirable thoroughness, and his tone is balanced and fair. All in all, he gives the reader a detailed and accurate picture.

Nick Reynold received his doctorate from Bar-Ilan University.