ALLENBY'S PALESTINE

On 9 December 1917, General Allenby, the commander in chief of the British Expedition Force from Egypt, occupied Jerusalem and established a temporary political framework for administering Palestine, the occupied enemy territory. In September 1918, the north of Palestine was taken quietly and, once upper Galilee was ceded from French Syria in 1919, Palestine and Israel as we know them today were one geo-political unit and an integral part of the British Empire in the Middle East.

Allenby envisaged himself as a reborn crusader, or a quasi-monarch, whose ‘realm’ was run very much like other new British possessions in the area, with the help of Arabists from the British Arab office in Cairo. With their guidance, Allenby laid the foundations for a new political dispensation in Palestine. A few months after his arrival, his small entourage of experts was augmented by colonial officials who had gained their experience in India, Africa or Egypt. They shared a common perception of the new British possession as an Arab country.

General Allenby and the two military governors who replaced him between 1918 and 1920 were hampered by the commitment in the Balfour Declaration to make a Jewish homeland in what they saw as an Arab country. While senior and junior members of the administration may have had reservations about this, their personal views mattered little. They were functionaries of a policy formulated in London's corridors of power.