The Palestine Mandate: The Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Supercut)

Primary Sources
Khalil al-Sakakini, Such Am I, O World, (1990)
Elias Sasson, Baderekh el Hashalom: Igrot Vesihot (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1978)

Secondary Sources

Additional Voice Work Provided By:
@SamAronow
@HistoryandHeadlines
@CivilWarWeekByWeek

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[Shakshuka]

Phenomenal work. The most comprehensive breakdown on the conflict I've seen. It takes bravery and integrity to do this without leaving out inconvenient truths to seem unbiased. An honest and detailed assessment will always be worth more than a balanced one.

[kennbmondo]

As a student of history, I found your analysis to be excellent as is all your material. A pleasure to watch and learn.

[HistoryfortheAges]

I have been teaching the history of the Middle East for over 25 years on a college campus. First time I ran into your channel. I see you made a 3 hour video on this. I will have to give it all a watch. I tell people you can't learn the history of the Middle east in a 10 second tik tok. I have a 19-video playlist as well, several hours long that covers events as far back as the ancient world until today. When I have some time I will watch as much of this as I can, would be curious to see how it compares to what I have been teaching.

[TheOneAndOnly]

Absolutely outstanding video. I am 62 and self taught on this conflict and the details in your videos are next level.

When you learn about the actions of the Grand Mufti that you cannot blame the Jews for their response. Please note that the majority of attacks were Arabs on Jews till the mid 1930s and then the Jews finally kicked it into gear. We always hear about Dier Yassan but never hear about Hebron, 1929 or Jerusalem, 1921.

I have noticed that “the usual suspects” leave vile comments. Sort of sad that reciting the actual history justifies their actions. All I can say is, no comment.

[JoeBack]

Excellent video! As someone living in Israel and involved with teaching her history; I am really impressed with the amount of detail you have gone into here and throughout your videos on the topic. Keep up the great work!

[erloriel]

Personally I am just happy that this video (unlike 90% of all others) doesn't just say "colonialism!" and call it a day.

[bernhardsegerer]

What a incredible piece of work! Thank you so much!

[johnnotrealname]

Only 12 minutes late and I have been waiting for this masterpiece. Thank You. Very reliable content on topics I know little about.

[jeweetzlfpappi]

I can't believe this video only has 46k views. It's by far the most complete, well-researched, accessible and nuanced piece of background information about the present conflict on the entire internet. It's a genuinely astonishing achievement that you managed to tell this story in just three hours. I studied history and Holocaust & Genocide Studies for 7 years, read dozens of books and articles on the Middle East, Jewish history and colonialism, and yet I still learned so very much from this video. Any historian will love this. And everyone who suddenly has a very strong opinion on a conflict they don't understand in the slightest may begin to realize that any black and white portrayal of history is simply wrong, and that the loudest voices are often the least informed.

Understanding requires effort, nuance, and much more than slacktivist retweets and 2-minute TikTok 'explainers'. Maybe that's why this video has only 46k views...

[adhaniswara]

Will you be covering the period between 1939 and 1948?

[michellec]

I started to learn Middle East history from decent Chinese history professors 20 years ago. The historical facts they cited/quoted are pretty much in line with yours, and the narratives were pretty neutral and mainstream English history teaching. It’s interesting that these historical narratives are contradictory to current Chinese government propaganda (CCP) position or the old textbooks during the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s era which was similar to the modern day western leftist narratives. The history we tell, the people we become.

[bearowen]

As an American Gentile observer and (admittedly casual) scholar of the situation in the Middle East since my college days in the 1960s, I believe this lecture to be relatively well balanced and objective. That's not easy to do when the subject matter is so hotly controversial and passions are running as high as they are today. I must say that I was disappointed at times when our lecturer failed to accurately read the important quotations verbatim, sometimes distorting their meaning. But overall this was very informative in its detailed granularity of events that occurred in the first half of the 20th Century in Palestine as well as diplomatically in the centers of power in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

Grade B+

[JacobStein]

I live in Israel and I would just like to add my own quick summary of the history here.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the Central Powers on the losing side of World War One. The League of Nations divided the Empire into sections (for example Iraq, Syria, etc) with borders which had never before existed. These sections were placed under the rule of Britain or France until they would become independent states. One section was called Palestine. Britain was given a mandate to make it into a Jewish state. I would speculate that the British government saw a Jewish state in Palestine as being a reliable ally to help Britain defend the crucial Suez Canal. (This actually happened eventually in the 1956 Suez Crisis.) The map of Palestine was drawn carefully to include the port of Eilat in the south and Haifa in the north, giving Palestine access to both ends of the canal.

About 80% of Palestine came under Jewish control in 1948 and the remainder in 1967.

However the Muslim population of Palestine grew, and continues to grow, much more quickly than anyone in 1918 expected thanks to better diet, cleaner water and vaccinations. Additionally most Muslims have been vehemently against the idea of giving Palestine to the Jews. The result is a Jewish state but with a large and growing hostile Muslim population disenfranchised and living in Bantustans.

Regarding Muslim refugees who fled Palestine in 1948, every war creates refugees. Loyalist refugees fleeing the United States following the American Revolution founded Ontario while the property which they left was confiscated by the US government. No one seems to be very worried about the American loyalists' right of return.

It should be mentioned that Muslims do not recognize the concepts of human rights and international law but they hypocritically criticize Jews for violating human rights and international law.

[quarefremeruntgentes]

From 1939-1947, the British disarmed Arabs, while ignoring Jewish militias acquisition of military grade small arms.

[HistoryandHeadlines]

A well put together and interesting video!

[richardkranium]

This is a very in depth look at this problem, compared to what I have seen elsewhere. I have a different view after watching this.

[Tripple_Threatt]

The most unbiased comprehensive video on this issue there is & it’s not close. Almost every other video leaves out a lot of details on one side

[Theoreticallyyou]

Amazing video, will watch all over the next few days.

[beardeodorant]

Hey @CasualHistorian I just wanted to say thank you. I am a Jewish person who has just discovered your Chanel and I appreciate your historiography of Israel/Palestine and your videos exposing antisemitism. You have gained a new subscriber.

[Zepol]

Another great video! Keep up the great content