WWI, Balfour & the British Mandate
The Sinai and Palestine campaign, the Balfour Declaration, and Mandate-era governance.
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The Sinai and Palestine Campaign, 1915–1918
Indian soldiers served from the first battle of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign to the last. In February 1915, Indian infantry and camel troops helped defeat an Ottoman attempt to cross the Suez Canal. About 144,000 Indian personnel were sent to Egypt and Palestine during the war. When Jerusalem surrendered on 9 December 1917, Indian Muslim guards were sent to protect its holy places. In early 1918 the British moved most of their own infantry to France, and Indian soldiers replaced them. By the final offensive in September 1918, Indians made up most of General Allenby's infantry and two full cavalry divisions. On 23 September 1918 the Jodhpur and Mysore Lancers captured Haifa, and their commander, Dalpat Singh, was killed. India and Israel now honour this battle together. New Delhi renamed Teen Murti Chowk as Teen Murti Haifa Chowk on 14 January 2018.
The British Mandate
Britain governed Palestine under a League of Nations Mandate from 1920 to 1948. The League approved the Mandate in July 1922, and it came into force in September 1923. It required Britain to secure a Jewish national home while protecting the civil and religious rights of all inhabitants. Jewish immigration raised the Jewish share of the population from about 13 % in 1922 to about 33 % at the end of 1946. Arab opposition to this policy led to violence in 1920, 1921 and 1929, and to the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939. Britain responded with commissions of inquiry and with policy statements called White Papers in 1922, 1930 and 1939. The 1939 White Paper limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 over five years. In 1947 Britain referred the question to the United Nations, which recommended partition. British rule ended on 15 May 1948.
The Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration is a statement of British policy in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild. It said the British government viewed "with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and would use its "best endeavours" to help. It added two conditions. Nothing would prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. Nothing would prejudice the rights and political status of Jews in other countries. The War Cabinet approved the final text on 31 October 1917, after drafts that began in July. The Declaration overlapped with two earlier British commitments: the McMahon-Hussein letters of 1915 and 1916, and the Sykes-Picot agreement with France of May 1916. In 1922 the League of Nations wrote the Declaration into the Mandate for Palestine.
