How the Israel-Palestine conflict began | Part 2

1936, British Mandatory Palestine was in flames. In response to rising Jewish immigration and economic dominance, Arab Palestinians revolted against the British attacking military installations and Jewish settlements. The British were scrambling for an answer.

In our last episode, we explored Britain’s conflicting promises made during the First World War and how it tried to resolve them. In this episode we’ll examine how the Second World War transformed the conflict in Mandate Palestine once again. Why did Britain change its mind about a Jewish homeland, how did a Zionist underground insurgency defeat the British and how were the borders of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank created?

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[ImperialWarMuseums]

Thanks for watching!

Please remember to be polite in the comments. Any comments that we consider to be offensive or aggressive will be removed.

[michaelhowell]

I'm not sure one could truly say Britain "lost" to Israel. I think they more or less just threw their hands up and said to hell with it, y'all deal with it.

[freakyterrorist]

“I shall leave them under the mat”

What a classic line. Imagine someone saying something like that in a press conference in 2024!!!

[ashoakwillow]

Thanks for putting your archive resources into manageable format for non-historians like myself, for citizens in a democracy need to know something of the past in order to lobby representatives for a just solution to present problems.

[flemmingaaberg]

My God what a convoluted mess it is - really glad IWM is doing this and shedding some light on it for people like me - non-historians who still want to understand it all.

[_Wombat]

Thanks for the video. Informative and well presented.
Lets hope there will eventually be some semblance of peace in the region, whatever that looks like. At the end of the day it is innocent people who suffer.

[adamdudley]

I commend this channel for telling the truth and not being racist towards Jews

[michenorman]

The story goes back earlier- the first thing Britain did when it got the mandate was to give the Golan to France (hence Syria) and the area up to the Litani to France (hence Lebanon) - in exchange for territory in Iraq. Then it hived off 76% of the remaining territory to create Trans-Jordan. Whilst mentioning the "illegal" Jewish immigration, which was legal, the White Paper was a fundamental and unauthorized breach of the mandate, Britain turned a blind eye to massive Arab immigration

[nev]

Years ago I met an Israeli guy who had been born in Egypt and his family were expelled in about 1958.
About half the Egyptian Jews went to Israel and the rest went elsewhere, mainly to western countries.

[AyalSharon]

A few comments: (1) The plight of European Jewry was a low priority for the British gov'ts before, during, and immediately after the Holocaust. Most certainly during the Baldwin and Chamberlain gov'ts, when the official policy was to appease Hitler. In 1938, not only did the Chamberlain gov't push for the Munich accords, it also issued the White Paper on Jewish Immigration to Palestine, AND in the Evian conference it also refused to accept any Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany into mainland Britain. The British gov't did everything at its disposal to prevent Jews from escaping the Nazis. (2) After WW2, Atlee and Bevin allowed a small number of Jews into the UK, but continued to enforce the 1938 White Paper. Ernie Bevin fantasized about sending the millions of Jewish refugees in Displaced Person camps to New York City. He infamously complained that "Truman doesn't want them". (3) The "Sergeant's Affair" was an Irgun reprisal to the British execution of several Irgun members in Acre prison several days prior. (4) India was partitioned in 1947, a year prior to the partition of Palestine, under similar circumstances, and also with a British withdrawal. So it is not correct that the situation in Palestine had no precedent. (5) Britain did get involved in the 1948 war - surreptitiously. A British General (Gen. John Bagot Glubb) was the commander of the Arab Legion (later renamed the Jordanian army) that captured the West Bank. Britain's Royal Air Force assisted the Egyptian army in the fighting around Gaza. Also, Jordan's subsequent annexation of the West Bank was, at the time, only recognized by one country: Britain. (6) You briefly mention British-French rivalry, and British- Soviet rivalry (in the context of the Cold War). These rivalries played a role in the 1948 war, and its immediate aftermath.

[nyquil]

It’s shocking we don’t describe this issue as clear cut colonialism like we do with almost every other country in the non European country

[andrewyates]

Enjoyed this and would like to see a part 3 maybe even part 4/5.

[AnimalMother]

why didnt Egypt and Jordan create a Palestinian state in their occupied territories?

[frankgulla]

Very nice summary of how we got to 1949 and the beginning of the current situation.

[lashachakhunashvili]

"On the last day of the Mandate, the Chief Secretary of the British Administration called a press conference in his Jerusalem office. One of the journalists there asked: "And to whom do you intend to give the keys to your office?". "I shall leave them under the mat", was the reply."

That was Sir Henry Gurney, his Mandate era diary (published and commented by an Israeli historian Motti Golani) makes a good read for anyone interested in the conflict beyond the headlines.

[MrDrbld]

One of the most balanced versions I have seen on YT for a while. However, the omission of Al Husseinis full and lethal collaboration with the Nazi regime should not be so truncated or airbrushed. He was, after all, an architect and major actor in this series part 3 and beyond, having been a mentor to the Egyptian, Yasser Arafat, and to 2 SS Divisions, for which he emerged untried from the WWII

[eddieshakh]

Very balanced presentation despite made by the British. But number of Jewish immigrants from Arab states was way more than 260K

[spiderhussain]

The British gave weapons to the settlers this is common knowledge. This is why the settlers became the dominant force.

[MediocreAverage]

A decent attempt at being impartial, factual and informative. This is a really interesting summary into the Arab-Israeli issues in the modern era. Anyone watching just needs to keep in mind that this has been going on for much longer than 2, 000 years. All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.

[ImStillWoody]

FANTASTIC Video! Did an amazing job showing how both sides are guilty of terrible acts towards one another and even towards themselves.

I hope this goes viral so people learn the actual history and not the Anti-Israel or Anti-Palestinian versions we see so often today.