1930s to 50s

• The Jews had occupied Palestine during Biblical times.

  • Under the rule of Ancient Rome, Jewish revolts were violently supressed - Jews expelled in 70 CE.

  In the centuries following, Palestine became Arab, Muslim land + part of the Ottoman empire.
• After WW1: Collapse of the Ottoman empire.

  • Britain then controlled Palestine by League of Nations mandate.

  Jewish immigration to Palestine increased in 1920s and 30s, tensions with Arab population.
• The Holocaust led to calls for Jews to have their own homeland.

  • 1945 pressure increased on the British to take 100,000 Jewish settlers into Palestine, British refused.
  • Terrorist campaign into Palestine, hundreds of deaths - Britain couldn't sustain colonies and oversea territories and their economy was weakened by war - couldn't solve issue in Palestine and asked UN to intervene.