Palestine 36 is an Anglo-Palestinian feature film funded by the BFI and BBC Film along with French, Danish, and Norwegian money and a host of Middle Eastern backers. It tells a story set within a little-known period of British colonial history (one that follows on from Nicholas Saunders’ feature here). From 1936 to 1939, Palestinian Arabs rose in violent protest against British rule in Palestine, and the rising was determinedly put down by British troops. The film takes the viewer inside the Palestinian national movement, and has many elements that echo with events today. But what was Britain doing in Palestine at the time? How did British rule in the region come about?
At the end of 1917, with stalemate on the Western Front, Lloyd George’s government was desperate for success somewhere. General Allenby, commanding the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, achieved the victories that were so sought after. His army defeated the Turks at the Third Battle of Gaza in November 1917, occupied Jaffa later that month, and captured Jerusalem in December, the first Christian conqueror of the Holy City since the 11th century. It was a stunning triumph over the failing Ottoman armies. Allenby and his entourage, which included Lawrence of Arabia, marched into the conquered city on foot, to show their humility. In the following year, Allenby’s forces advanced up the Jordan valley, defeated the Turks at the Battle of Megiddo, and in October reached Damascus.
At the war’s end, the British Army set up a military administration in the area called Palestine. It was soon resolved that the area would be governed by Britain under a ‘Mandate’ from the newly formed League of Nations. This was a new concept in international law by which the victorious wartime powers would govern a territory on a temporary basis until the community living there was able to govern itself. The promise made in the 1917 Balfour Declaration to build a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine was incorporated in the terms of the Mandate. The first High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, a prominent English Jew, arrived in 1920. Winston Churchill as Colonial Secretary spent March 1921 in the region negotiating the final terms. The area to the east of Palestine, on the other side of the Jordan river, known as Transjordan, was also given to Britain as a Mandate shared with Emir Abdullah, the Hashemite brother of Feisal, who had led the Arab Revolt against the Turks. A dynasty was established that rules to this day. Feisal himself was offered Iraq as a further sop to the promises made in the McMahon letters (see box below). In line with the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the French were given Mandates in Lebanon and Syria.
Ancient DNA and ‘Anglo-Frisians’