Legacy of Empire

The Arab-Israeli conflict rages on, with no peace process and no sign of resolution. Much ignorance remains of the origins of the modern state of Israel, and in particular, Britain's key role in its creation. In the early twentieth century, Britain took two momentous decisions: first, to issue the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which pledged to facilitate the establishment in Palestine of a 'national home for the Jewish people'; the second, to retain it as the cornerstone of British rule in Palestine after the First World War. Indeed, over the next two decades, British imperial decision-makers would oversee the colonisation of Arab Palestine by Jewish immigrants, disregarding contemporary evidence and warnings that Britain would acquire 'another Ireland'. In the end, this inexorably led to bitter conflict. In response to full-scale revolt by the Arabs, Britain proposed the partition of an ungovernable land: a 'two-state solution' which - though endorsed by the United Nations in 1947 - has so far brought into being neither two states nor a solution to this conflict. In this compelling and meticulous account, Gardner Thompson offers an evidence-based corrective review of Britain's role in the turbulent history of Palestine before World War Two. This is essential reading for the pursuit of Arab-Israeli reconciliation today.