Middle East

• 1916: Sykes Picot Act given France Syria and Britain given: Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq ( Mesopotamia)
• 1917: Balfour Declaration, that Palestine is an international home for both the Jews and Arabs.
• Palestine allowed the British to move Jews into Palestine with the promise of territory by the British.
• 1932: Iraq given independence, but British still in control of the military base and relations with oil.
• 1922: Anglo- Iraqi treaty, allowed King Faisal II to keep good relations with Britain. Later on, in 1930 a promise of full consultation on foreign policy.
• 1937 to 1939: Policy of Repression was the tension between Arabs and Jews, with 9,000 Arabs arrested and 100 hanged with the use of 25,000 British soldiers to calm the situation.
• 1929: 900 Jewish settlers killed in anti- Jewish demonstration.
• 1937: Peel Report rejected by Arabs for Palestine to be partitioned, with British control still over Jerusalem.
• During WW2 in 1939 Jews made up a third of Palestine's population.
• Mid 1945: 200,000 displaced Jews in Europe wanted to settle in Palestine.
• Huge sympathy for Holocaust survivors especially by the USA.
• Gangs in Palestine such as; The Stern Gang (Zionist) favored an alliance with Hitler against Britain.
• Jewish attacks on British officials throughout ww2 and continued in 1945.
• In 1945 Attlee was generally expected to support the Zionist.
• Labour party policy in 1944 had suggested that Jews should be allowed to become the majority in Palestine.
• 1944: Foreign Secretary Benin in Palestine expressed doubts as a large scale Jewish immigration would alienate the Arabs, as Middle Eastern oil was important for Britain.
• In September 1945: a Cabinet Committee supporting Benin, recommended a monttly quota of 1,500 Jews to immigrate to Palestine.
• Truman the President of America was sympathetic towards the Jews and demanded a large scale Jewish immigration and the creation of the independent Jewish state.
• May 1946: Anglo American Committee opposed a partition in Palestine and recommended a admission of 100,000 Jewish immigrants.
• February 1947: Jewish immigration problem referred to the UN.
• May 1948: Palestine independent and new state created called Israel.
• January 1949: Britain recognised Israel.
• Ethnic/ religious tensions from 1928 to 1929: Arab and Jewish conflict, focusing on access to worship due to Arabs building a structure near the Wailing wall in Jerusalem causing the Jewish to accuse the actions as 'deliberate'. 1929: several hundred dead on both sides.
• 1936: Arab revolt lasted until 1939 caused the need for 20,00 British army soldiers, result led to the death of 5,000 Arabs.