British Mandate, Palestine.

In 1916, during the First World War, the post-war division of the area in the Middle East, that was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, was agreed under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This was a secretly conceived treaty drawn up between Britain and France marking out which country would have control, and where across the region, with little consideration given to the indigenous populations and therefore eventually provoking widespread discontent. Frustrations were compounded by the fact that in 1917 Britain, with its ‘Balfour Declaration’, appeared to back the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine leaving the Arab community believing that it would no longer be supported in its desire for self-rule.

The decisions of 1916 and 1917 were reinforced at the 1920 San Remo Conference, Italy and finally ratified by the council of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations, on 24 July 1922. The French were given the mandate for Syria, which included present day Lebanon, and the British were mandated Palestine as well as control over what is modern-day Iraq and Jordan.