The British Mandate for Palestine

In 1920, the British Mandate for Palestine came into existence, which was approved by the Council of the League of Nations in July 1922. The preamble of the decision stated that 'the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect (…) the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine'. This was the exact wording of the Balfour Declaration of November 1917.

Article 2 of the decision read: 'The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home (…) and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.'

Article 4: 'An appropriate Jewish agency shall be recognized as a public body for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Administration of Palestine in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishment of the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine, and, subject always to the control of the Administration, to assist and take part in the development of the country. The Zionist organization, so long as its organization and constitution are in the opinion of the Mandatory appropriate, shall be recognized as such agency.'

Article 6: 'The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency (…) close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.'

Article 25: 'In the territories lying between the Jordan and the eastern boundary of Palestine as ultimately determined, the Mandatory shall be entitled, with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations, to postpone or withhold application of such provisions of this mandate as he may consider inapplicable to the existing local conditions, and to make such provision for the administration of the territories as he may consider suitable to those conditions (…).' The mandate officially came into force on 29 September 1923.

Reactions

The Zionist movement protested vehemently, yet to no avail, against the exclusion of the lands east of the Jordan River (Transjordan took up 76 percent of the mandated area) from the clauses concerning the establishment of a Jewish national home. In 1946, Transjordan would become the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan under King Abdullah, one of the sons of Sharif Husayn ibn Ali.

Creation of Transjordan

After the French occupation of Syria, nationalists had fled south to Amman, whence they had been calling on Sharif Husayn’s second son, Abdullah, to lead a campaign to recover Syria. In November 1920 he responded by travelling with a force of armed tribesmen to the small oasis town of Maan, today in southern Jordan but then in the kingdom of Hejaz. Abdullah remained in Maan for three months awaiting the British reaction. The British, whose presence in Transjordan was only nominal, were worried that Abdullah might complicate Britain’s relations with France.

By early 1921, however, London had decided that Transjordan should be included formally in its Palestine mandate; that, as a gesture to their wartime promises to the Arabs, the territory should be exempted from the mandate’s provisions concerning a Jewish National Home; and that Abdullah should abandon his declared designs on Syria and instead head a British-sponsored Transjordanian administration.

In March 1921 Abdullah moved north to Amman. That month a conference of British officials in Cairo resolved that Abdullah should govern Transjordan under the British high commissioner in Palestine. In late March, Winston Churchill, the Colonial Secretary, accompanied by Lawrence, travelled to Jerusalem, where he signed a formal agreement with Abdullah.

King Abdullah

In 1921 Transjordan’s population was only about 230,000. It had no significant natural resources and few settlements, and its only real revenue was a British subsidy. Transjordan was ‘a country – if it was a country at all… which was conceded to Abdullah because nobody else really cared to have it’, wrote Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi. Abdullah was utterly dependent on the British, especially for cash and military support. Although he cultivated, and generally enjoyed the allegiance of, the tribes, the ultimate guarantor of his rule was his army, the British-officered Arab Legion, formed in 1923 (from 1939 to 1956 led by Sir John Bagot Glubb, better known as Glubb Pasha).

At that time Ibn Saud and his Wahhabi fighters were expanding their power in what would become Saudi Arabia, a process that would bring about the demise of the Sharif Husayn’s Kingdom of the Hejaz. In an effort to salvage at least a part of his family’s domains, Abdullah, backed by the British, in 1925 announced the incorporation of Maan and Aqaba districts into Transjordan.

In 1923 London recognized the existence in Transjordan of a government under Abdullah and acknowledged him as emir but said nothing about the status of his domain. An Anglo-Transjordanian Agreement of 20 February 1928 went a step further, recognizing the territory as an ’emirate’, or principality. Transjordan’s formal independence from the UK was agreed in a treaty signed on 22 March 1946 that also provided for ‘perpetual peace and friendship’ between the two, while providing for continued British support for the Arab Legion and access to military facilities. On 15 May 1946 Abdullah’s compliant government resolved that his title should be upgraded from ‘Emir’ to ‘King’, and this was endorsed by his equally compliant Parliament on 22 May 1946. In the same session, Parliament voted to change the country’s name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.