British Mandate Research Articles

Disconnected Flows, Eroded Landscapes: A Case Study of Human Impact on a Judean Desert Water System

The Bir el-Umdan cistern, a prominent archaeological site in the Judean Desert, is one of the largest and best preserved water systems in the region. Hewn in chalk, the cistern area measures 114 m2 and has a ~700 m3 volume. Two massive columns, each with a base diameter of 2.5 m, support the ceiling within the cistern’s interior. This impressive structure is estimated to date back to the Hellenistic to Late Antiquity periods based on its architectural characteristics. Historical records indicate that the cistern was documented on 19th-century maps but disappeared from the 1935 and 1943 British Mandate maps. Its reappearance on the 1967 Survey of Israel map includes an upstream road disconnecting the cistern from its natural drainage basin. Despite its renovation in the 2010s, the cistern’s water supply remains limited due to its reduced catchment area, which now constitutes only 25% of its original size. Runoff coefficients calculated for the cistern’s drainage basin are relatively low (1.4% to 8.1%) compared to other desert regions. We analyzed the 21st-century runoff coefficient and recurrence interval over the original drainage basin (0.12 km2) to estimate the water volumes in antiquity. Our analysis suggests that using an 8.1% runoff coefficient, the estimated water volume is 806 m3, implying a cistern overflow every 6–7 years. A more conservative estimate using a 5% runoff coefficient yields a water volume of 500 m3 and a 15-year recurrence interval. Sediment analysis reveals that silt particles dominate the sediment accumulated in the cistern and its upstream sedimentation basins. The consistent grain size distribution throughout the system indicates rapid water flow during flood events. Reconstructing the sedimentation history is challenging due to potential maintenance and possible dredging and cleaning operations.

Out of the Dust of Years: Archaeology in Palestine from the Ottomans to the Mandate

This article explores the legal regulation of archaeology under the Ottoman Empire and the role of archaeology in the governance of Palestine during the period of the British Mandate. The founding, fieldwork, and publications of significant Western archaeological and antiquarian organizations active in the region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are discussed in this context.

Knowledge Mobility and the Emergence of Contemporary Iraqi Architecture (1936–1958)

Planned by the British in the aftermath of World War I, the new state of Iraq—ruled by the Hashemite kingdom (1921–1958) under British mandate—emerged on the land of Mesopotamia and inherited its enormous cultural and architectural legacy. Colonial discourse was adopted by the British during the Hashemite reign to impose Western culture and hegemony. This paper reviews the impact of this colonial discourse in terms of Western architectural knowledge mobility on shaping Iraqi contemporary architecture in this epoch. The paper traces the education of nine notable early Iraqi architects with Western architectural academic backgrounds and studies 13 of their public buildings executed in 1936–1958, to reveal the stance of those architects toward this discourse and how their buildings connected to the legacy of Iraqi architecture. Findings rest on a style-coverage of the main local architectural legacy and Western architectural façade’s characteristics to detect and examine the nature and intensity of the transformations that the façades of these buildings exhibit compared to local traditions. Findings show that knowledge mobility helped develop certain types of architects’ responses toward local architectural traditions and colonial discourse that evolved through time during the study target epoch.

Legacy of the British Mandate: Eliminating The Palestinian Right to Self‐Determination

AbstractIn February 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a plan for the “postwar” Gaza Strip that envisions Israel's military as unilaterally and indefinitely patrolling the enclave while an unnamed third party runs the local government. While even allies like the United States criticized this scheme, Palestine has never enjoyed autonomy as a state, and the institutions and practices of Israel's far‐right government—and even of the Palestinian elite—are rooted in the settler colonialism facilitated by the British mandate, 1922–1948. This period was the first and last time in modern history that Palestinian Arabs and Jews were administered as a single polity, albeit on radically unequal terms. This article examines how international law was used to suppress the Palestinians and privilege the creation of a Jewish state of Israel. The legacy of this regime can be seen in the present‐day thwarting of Palestinian self‐determination through Israel's use of the military for civil administration, digital surveillance, and the right‐wing agenda for annexation of the West Bank and perpetual war in Gaza.

Transmutation of The Reproductive Life of Women in Southern/West Cameroon(S) 1922-1972: A Colonial Manipulation

In all human communities, societal continuity depended on the quality and availability of infant and maternity welfare services. Conscious of the outcomes of infancy care on the productive efficiency of individuals at adulthood, the reproductive life of women and child welfare became an area of European domination during colonialism. Using British Southern/West Cameroon(s) as the theatre, this paper sets out to uncover colonial motives in the transformation of reproductive practices among women as it examines the different strategies and mechanisms employed in extending maternity and infant welfare as a measure of colonial imperialism. Archival information and oral interviews made up primary sources while books, published articles and dissertations constituted the secondary sources. The descriptive historical approach was employed in the analysis of the work. This paper submits that: the British colonial administration in Southern Cameroons had a mask colonial exploitative economic agenda behind the assignment put forth by the League of Nations Mandate Commission in its Article II of the British Mandate agreement. A baseless racial discrimination and cultural domination motivated the transformation of the reproductive life of indigenous women and the extension of basic infant welfare services during the Mandate and trusteeship periods in Southern Cameroons. These services were mostly provided by Western Mission agencies and plantation firms who recognized the independence of Southern Cameroons but withheld the rights to medical autonomy. In some cases, the transfer of rights to manage the medical arm of the different agencies was partially transferred during the last years of the Cameroon federation and in some cases after the abrogation of the Cameroon federation. The British decision to administer Southern Cameroons as a mandate was a conspiracy to enforce the tentacles of colonialism and its diverse arms with hope of greater economic and cultural gains.

הפעילות הסוציאלית בקהילה היהודית בירושלים בתקופת המנדט

In this article, I analyze the factors that shaped social welfare activity in the Jewish community in Jerusalem during the British Mandate in Palestine. First, I review the attitude towards social welfare activity in the City Council—the body that preceded the Community Council—during the 1920s. Second, I examine the activities and efforts of the Social Welfare Bureau by way of the Community Council in the early 1930s. Third, I analyze on two levels the impact of political events in the Jewish Yishuv from the mid-1930s until late in the Mandate period on social welfare activities: on the municipal level, with emphasis on the impact of Jerusalem’s unique factors and characteristics, including the Sephardic Community Council’s political influence on community-social welfare activities; and at the national level of the Jewish Yishuv, which included the influence of the Fifth Aliyah and the Yishuv fundraising organizations on the activities of the Social Welfare Bureau in the 1940s. Based on the analysis of each of the aforementioned players, I propose that the nature and scope of social welfare activities in Jerusalem were the result of three combined influences: the Jewish Yishuv – initiatives originating from the National Institutions; the community influence – activities based on the Community Council’s status and a community-oriented outlook; and the local influence – norms and attitudes that were prevalent in Jerusalem before the British conquest. Therefore, I show in this article that the Jewish Yishuv framework is one of the components that shaped social welfare activity in Jerusalem.

חוויית אסירות המחתרות בבית לחם, 1947-1939: היבטים מגדריים

Bethlehem prison was the only women’s prison in Palestine during the British Mandate. It housed over two hundred Jewish women, mainly from the Irgun and Lehi underground movements. This article describes, for the first time, the experience of the women in Bethlehem prison and analyzes it using gender tools. Their experiences were documented and preserved in ego-documents that include personal letters, diaries, and subsequently written memoirs. The analysis of gender content in the writings of the women in Bethlehem prison focuses the discussion on a number of components: their relations with Jewish prisoners accused of criminal offenses and with Arab prisoners; feminine outward markers and concern about external appearance and the women’s physical and medical needs; family and motherhood behind bars; and also, spiritual elements, including ritual practice in female environments. We also discuss elements that do not appear in their writings, including feminist themes or at least those interpreted as feminist in a modern reading. All of this sheds light on the unique perspective of the woman fighter in the Revisionist movement and adds another layer to the history of women and gender in the Jewish Yishuv and the study of the underground movements

משק האנרגיה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל בשלהי המנדט הבריטי

This article discusses the energy sector of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine during the late British Mandate period, from late 1947 to the Declaration of Independence in mid-May 1948. The article examines how the Yishuv’s leaders and those in charge of its energy supply prepared for the British withdrawal from Palestine and the measures taken to ensure the Yishuv's energy needs during this period. Until then, the Mandate authorities had seen to the Yishuv’s energy needs, a responsibility that would now be transferred to the institutions of the Jewish state upon its establishment. Were their actions solely focused on the preparations for war or also on preparations for the creation of the state? Archival and other primary sources were used by the author. In addition to analyzing technical information, the article seeks to highlight the individuals who were involved in preserving and securing the energy supply of the Jewish Yishuv. These were resourceful and visionary individuals who used creativity, initiative, and boldness to enable the Yishuv to solve its problems and to navigate between various political and economic interests and the needs of the economy and the military. They successfully steered the rickety ship of the energy sector during the intercommunal war in Palestine and prepared the infrastructure for the energy sector of a sovereign state after the Declaration of Independence.

إرث بلفور: بريطانيا والصهيونية والطريق المثير للجدل إلى قيام إسرائيل

The research provides an overview of the rise of the Zionist movement, starting from the establishment of the Jewish Colonial Society in 1891 by Maurice de Hirsch, leading to the formation of the World Zionist Organization and the creation of the Jewish National Fund in 1901. It discusses the controversial debates over the location of a Jewish homeland, including the Uganda Scheme, and the advocacy for Palestine by figures like Herzl. The impact of World War I on the Middle East was influenced by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The British Mandate in Palestine, established after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, had significant impacts on Jewish immigration, Arab displacement, and the road to statehood. The United Nations eventually issued a resolution in 1947 to divide Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs. This was accepted by Jews but rejected by Arab states. Great Britain's actions towards the end of the mandate aimed to frustrate the establishment of the Jewish state envisioned by the United Nations plan. Drawing on primary and secondary sources from esteemed archives such as the British Library and personal accounts, this research seeks to elucidate the complex historical backdrop, contextualizing key decisions and conflicts that ultimately shaped the creation of the State of Israel. The analysis aims to provide nuanced insights into divergent perspectives held by Palestinians and Israelis regarding the resolution of this enduring conflict, rooted in a legacy of geopolitical manoeuvring and ideological fervour.

‘Allenby, O’ Allenby’: John Huston Finley’s Internationalist Case for a British Mandate in Palestine

ABSTRACT As the First World War drew to a close, the head of the American Red Cross’s Commission to Palestine, John Huston Finley, stepped into ongoing debates over the future of the Holy Land when he called for an international trusteeship in Palestine. Supporters and opponents of the Zionist movement – as well as the few scholars that have since engaged with Finley’s views – primarily understood Finley’s proposal as anti-Zionist. While Finley certainly presented his plan as an alternative to a Jewish state in Palestine, this article demonstrates that Finley’s proposal was much more directly a case for a British mandate that was rooted in Finley’s experiences working with the British – as well as his personal fascination with General Edmund Allenby. Finley believed and argued that Allenby’s person, character, and conduct demonstrated that the interests of ‘civilization’ could best be secured in Palestine by a British trusteeship. In his 1919 A Pilgrim in Palestine, published amidst the post-war debates over mandate assignments, Finley presented Allenby as a symbol of trusteeship’s possibilities in making an American case for British rule.

Cereal cultivation and storage by the Janabib Bedouin in the Negev Highlands, southern Israel (1917–1948)

This study focuses on the traditional methods used by the Janabib Bedouin tribe in the Negev Highlands to cultivate wheat and barley during the British Mandate period from 1917 to 1948. Despite the fact that this region receives only 90 mm of precipitation per year on average, and was located at a great distance from settlements and markets, the local Bedouin cultivated cereals by exploiting the ancient agricultural terraces from the Byzantine period which prevented runoff and distributed water over the agricultural plots. This research also found that the choice of which cereals to grow in different years, were determined by local climatic conditions. Thus, the Bedouin who lived in the Negev Highlands before 1948, developed specific adaptations in order to survive in these arid conditions.

Between cities and villages: the livestock economy in historical Palestine

This study aims at establishing a historically based model of animal husbandry in urban and rural settlements, in the Southern Levant. This type of model is required in the field of zooarchaeology, to better analyze and study ancient faunal remains. It also applies a non-traditional method to study and differentiate between urban and rural economies. For this aim, we used British Mandate tax files and village statistics. These are the best available historical documents for this period, that recorded herds management statistics in all settlements of Palestine. We selected only settlements inhabited by the indigenous population and divided the data into four environmental regions. We analyzed the livestock abundance and herd demography in each region. Each urban center was considered independently, while the rural villages were classified into three groups, based on the most common livestock (cattle, sheep, or goats). Results show economic variations between urban and rural settlements as well as regional trends, such as in pastoralism and agricultural management. In addition, meat industries were common in most urban centers, being the primary difference from rural economies. We applied this model to two large zooarchaeological case studies, dating from the Early Islamic to the Ottoman period; Mount Zion, located in the urban city of Jerusalem, and Tel Beth Shemesh (East), whose size and nature were not historically recorded. We found that the economic variations reflected in the model were also present in the faunal assemblages.

The Evolution of the Hebronite Regionalism 1929–48

Abstract The article discusses the integration of the Mount Hebron area into a distinct social and political region during the time of British Mandate in Palestine and the emergence of a regional “Hebronite” identity encompassing both the city of Hebron and the villages of the area. The study demonstrates that, while in many areas of the country such regional integration, or regionalization, developed through the gradual growth of economic, administrative, and political networks in the nineteenth century, the regionalization of Mount Hebron took place much later. It was not an outcome of the same dynamics as in other regions, but mainly a reaction born of chronic insecurity, as well as the social and even environmental hardships experienced in the region. In the 1940s, the determination to overcome these challenges was translated into the construction of a stable regional system that had significant intra-Palestinian and even geopolitical consequences. The study also shows that, while the Hebronite identity was a sub-national one, it had strong symbiotic, sometimes ambivalent, relations with the Palestinian and Arab national identities. Moreover, it was in no way a primordial but clearly a modern phenomenon.

PALESTINIAN LITERATURE: A RECORD OF PERPETUAL DISPLACEMENT AND FAILURES

Within the framework of Palestine's international, political, and aesthetic contexts, this study delves into the historical evolution of Palestinian literature, serving as a testament to the people's history of suffering. terrifying trials, and being banished from their whole country. It provides context for reading Palestinian literature and learning about the writers' legacies. As authors seek new ways to play out their histories and express themselves, the study delves into significant topics, such as the British Mandatory from 1948 to 1967, the Six-Day War, and the continuing colonization. In order to claim their displacement and suffering above the constraints of history, Palestinian intellectuals use the mystical power of language. The persistence of Palestinians under Israeli occupation is shown by the evolution of "Writings of Resistance" that began in the mid-20th century and continues to this day. Still going strong now, Palestinian literature cites classics while denying the "horror of history."The literary works of the Palestinian people eloquently portray the hardships endured by the Palestinian people and their continuous fight for survival.

Unresolvation of the Palestine problem — the main threat to regional security

The article analyzes the situation in the Middle East in connection with a new largescale armed confl ict between Israel and radical Islamist groups. The author reminds readers of the origins and causes of the Palestinian-Israeli confl ict and gives a detailed picture of the dynamics of events in the former British mandate territory of Palestine after 1948. The main reason for the ongoing tension in Israel's relations with the Arab and Muslim world is the disregard by the Israeli authorities and the leaders of a number of Arab countries of the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly on the creation of the State of Palestine. The ongoing occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanese Shebaa farms by the Israeli armed forces does not help to strengthen confi dence in Tel Aviv on the part of neighboring Arab countries. The author believes that the main goals of the attack on Israel by Hamas militants and Islamic Jihad (banned in the Russian Federation) on October 7, 2023 were, fi rstly, to attract the attention of regional and global players to the Palestinian problem, and secondly, to demonstrate the increased military capabilities of Hamas and the vulnerability of Israel, and thirdly, a slowdown or complete disruption of the process of further normalization of Israel’s relations with Arab countries. In addition, Palestinian radicals believed that a successful military operation against Israel could lead to an increase in fi nancial, economic, political and military assistance to Hamas from its supporters and sponsors. The author notes the growing involvement of a number of regional and extra-regional players in the armed confl ict in the Gaza Strip (Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthis, Iran, Qatar, Turkey, USA, EU countries). The article also notes the limited capabilities of UN institutions and other international organizations at this stage for a comprehensive and fair Middle East settlement.

A Foot in the Door: The Colonial Section of the German Foreign Office and the Settlement of Germans in Interwar Tanganyika

After 1925, German settlers began to return to the former German East Africa, lost through the Treaty of Versailles and transformed into the British Mandate of Tanganyika. The German Foreign Office's Colonial Section took on a proactive role to facilitate these Germans’ settlement in their former colony, including working with German ministries to release funding and navigating the British administration and settlers on the ground in Tanganyika. While Germany had lost its overseas colonies, these officials, many of whom had served in the pre-war empire, did not view their activity in colonial spaces like Tanganyika as belonging to the past. Officials in the Colonial Section navigated the appearance of political neutrality while also promoting their ‘colonial-political’ goals, hoping to create footholds of Germanness in Tanganyika that would keep open the possibility of future empire.

Arab Art Music between Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism in Mandate Palestine

This article examines Arab art music, or tarab, during the British Mandate for Palestine as the sonic harbinger of Palestinian modernism. It shows how the production, consumption, and dissemination of professionalized Arab art music in early twentieth-century Palestine was linked to the emergence of a Palestinian elite at a time when Palestine was undergoing rapid developments and becoming an important node of cultural exchange in the region. Arab art music thus provided a site for the construction of a cosmopolitanized urban identity across Palestinian cities, one that operated on two political registers: local Palestinian nationalism and regional pan-Arabism. The article concludes with a discussion on how Palestine’s political elite negotiated the inherent contradictions of colonized modernity through Arab art music.

PASTORALISTS, CAMELS AND STATE-MAKING: THE BANU SAKHR AND GLUBB PASHA IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY JORDAN

The administrative documents produced in Transjordan during the first decades of the British Mandate concerning the Banu Sakhr Bedouin tribe offer a detailed case study of state-making and the consequent disruption of autonomous nomadic pastoralist society. In the late Ottoman period, the tribe remained largely self-sufficient and beyond the reach of the authorities by virtue of their flocks of camels. But the extension of state-making into the desert regions during the Mandate, associated above all with the activities of one British army officer, John Bagot Glubb, served to undermine Banu Sakhr camel husbandry and alter the power dynamics between tribe and state. Taxation, control of mobility, border regimes and an end to inter-tribal raiding, combined with drought and economic depression, forced the tribe to diversify away from camel pastoralism. This process altered the Banu Sakhr social system and solidified the encapsulation of the tribe within the nascent state. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ .

Back to the Sea Clifford Holliday and the Building of the Government Estate and Kingsway Boulevard in British Mandatory Haifa

In 1923, at the onset of the British Mandate for Palestine, the British launched their largest infrastructural project in the Middle East, a modern harbor in Haifa, which turned the coastal city into their stronghold on the Eastern Mediterranean. This engineering feat was the product of an avaricious instrumental, technocratic appetite, which ignored the existing town. We argue, drawing on previously uncovered historical documents, that the architects and urban planners, which were commissioned to plan the Government Estate on reclaimed sea land abutting the harbor, recognized the detrimental effect of the harbor’s location on the town, potentially degrading it to “the level of a fifth rate Marseilles.” The Estate consequently became a battleground between conflicting developmental and urban interests, with its formative Kingsway Boulevard performing as a critical architectural act of remedy, which salvaged the existing city from a destiny as an industrial service town and restored its civic standing.

Causes and consequences of Israel-Palestine war

The war between Israel and Palestine is among the longest-lasting and most intricate geopolitical conflicts of the contemporary period. The dispute, which has its roots in a history of conflicting claims to land and national identity, has resulted in decades of violence, evictions, and political impasse. This study offers a thorough analysis of the Israel- Palestine conflict, emphasizing significant historical occurrences, underlying factors, and current dynamics influencing the conflict. The research follows the rise of rival nationalisms and the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, starting with the early Zionist movement and the British Mandate era. It looks at the uprooting of Arab Palestinians, the Arab Israeli wars that followed, and the occupation of Palestinian lands, such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the study explores the intricacies of religious, cultural, and geopolitical elements that intensify hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians. This research attempts to give a comprehensive view of the Israel-Palestine conflict using an interdisciplinary approach based on political science, historical analysis, and international relations theory. The research aims to provide insight into the historical foundations and current expressions of this ongoing struggle to support educated discourse and attempts to find a fair and durable settlement.