The fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end
of the First World War left the near east
divided into spheres of influence in a secret
agreement known as Sykes--Picot in 1916
the allies, namely France and Britain, carved
the Arab world between them even though Britain
had actually promised independence to the
Arabs who had helped them oust the Ottomans
while Lebanon and Syria were controlled by
the French, Palestine was taken by the British
who had assured Sharif Hussein, leader of the
1916 Arab revolt, that after the war Palestine
would be part of an independent greater Arab
kingdom at the same time however they promised
lord Edmond Rothschild a prominent member of
the world Zionist organization a homeland
for the Jewish people a letter sent by British
foreign secretary Arthur Balfour expressed
British government support for 
Zionist aims in Palestine.
One of the key motives behind this conflicting
British policy rested on the importance of
Palestine as a strategic point
on the land and sea routes to India
and as the last stop of pipelines
from the rich oil bearing
regions of the Middle East.
The 1917 Balfour declaration brought 
about
the single biggest crises
the Arab World has faced in the modern era
By the late 1920s the rising number of settlers
lead to resentment and clashes
 
The Palestinians did not view
these new European arrivals as
immigrants but as colonist.
In the 1920s and 30s as the
numbers of Jews reached new peaks.
The Palestinians, supported by their 
Arab neighbors, began their resistance
there were armed clashes both with
Jewish settlers and with British troops.
The culmination of the Palestinian resistance 
happened in the famous revolt of 1936-39.
This is a period which is usually put in the shade
but that was the climax of the tragic
dilemma of the Palestinian people
where they had to fight 2 enemies. They had
to fight the British mandate and they had to fight
Israeli settlers. So you have in 1936--1939
a general strike of one year, you have a rural
Guerrilla warfare of three years, which lead the British
to re-conqueror Palestine
with 30,000 British troops.
The Jews had an almost complete state
while our leadership was being
dismantled our leaders arrested
and for the most part exiled to the
Seychelle islands in the Indian Ocean
in 1938
the number of detainees reached 50,000
their detention was to be reviewed after
two years
it was the most violent year of our
struggle.
The first time the Arab regimes
introduced themselves into
the Palestinian
conflict was in that year
those were pro-British governments and
rather than simply
take a position of solidarity with the
Palestinians against the British
chose the route of mediation now on the
other hand
you have the exact opposite
reaction in which
many volunteers would start flocking
in what would become known
as the Salvation Army
and fighting with 
their Palestinian brethren.
By the end of the second
world war
the British Mandate began to collapse
the situation worsened
when one hundred thousand Jewish
survivors of the Nazi death camps
found their way illegally into Palestine
various plans for solving the
Palestinian problem
were rejected by one party or the other
one Arab
leader however came up 
with his own solution
so the Zionist had two plans
first how to expel the majority of Arabs
in their part, in their Jewish part,
and second what to do with the Arab
part would they accept a Palestinian
state in it. Of course for them
anathema was a Palestinian state.
So it was decided to offer that to
King Abdullah and that predetermined
a lot in the conduct of the war.
 
King Abdullah of Jordan aware of the
imminent
establishment of an Israeli state was
the only Arab leader to accept the 1947
United Nations Partition Plan
for Palestine because his long-term aim
was to unite Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and
Palestine
into the United Arab kingdom an
independent state
promised to the Arabs by the British who
were at the same time working to
establish
a Jewish state in Palestine
for him Palestine was an
extension of Jordan
and now we know
that he did engage in secret
negotiations with the
Zionist leadership especially
with Golda Meir
and David Ben-Gurion the Israelis were
very keen
at not having an independent Palestinian
state
and so they suggested that the West Bank
be taken over by Abdullah and
that met perfectly with
Abdullah's ambitions
to create his Greater Syria
Palestinians and Arabs protested the
United Nations Partition Plan
giving the Jewish state 56 percent of
the area of Palestine.
The Jews and the Palestinians
prepared for a confrontation
and although the Palestinians
outnumbered the Jews 2-to-1
the Jews were better prepared and
well-armed
they had a semi-independent government
led by David Ben-Gurion
and their military the Haganah was
well trained and experienced
the Palestinians on the other hand
had never recovered from the Arab Revolt
against the Ottomans and most of their
leaders
were in exile
in November of 1947 the United Nations
voted to divide Palestine in two.
The British accepted and made
plans to withdraw
but the Palestinians and the Arabs
rejected the resolution
of course they refused it because
they believed that they
had the right to the whole of Palestine
but nobody thought in terms
of if we take over
two-thirds of Palestine than it would
be much easier to claim the other third.
On May 14th 1948 the day before the
British withdrawal
the Jewish agency proclaimed the
foundation of the State of Israel
the next day as the last troops were leaving
war broke out.
 
An Arab army was sent to
defend the Palestinians
but some Palestinians were worried for
several of those Arab troops
specifically the Jordanians might be
there to annex parts of their country
Jerusalem in particular was a concern
the Jordanians under the command of 38
British officers
fought only in the United Nation areas
allotted to the Arab state
including Jerusalem while the Syrians
Egyptians Iraqis and Lebanese
invaded the territory allotted to the
state of Israel
with regards to Jerusalem and in spite
of the good relations between Jordan's
monarchy
and the Jewish leadership and the
attempt at a peace treaty
the Jews insisted on occupying
Jerusalem
but they couldn't because of the local
resistance
later on the Jordanian army intervened
we had the capacity to move from
defense to attack
but the British forbade the Jordanian
army from doing so.
After nine months of fighting
the Arabs were defeated the Israelis
captured seventy five percent of
Palestine
giving them an area one-third greater
than the area assigned
under the United Nations Partition Plan
the remainder of Palestine
namely the West Bank was controlled by
Jordanian forces.
One of the main issues which
are rarely raised concerning the Arab
defeat
is the pre-arranged war if you want
between King Abdullah and the Zionist so both
the Zionist and  King Abdullah offset
the creation of two states that's
relevant at present
because after some sixty
years we are still talking about the
same issue
do the Palestinians have the right
to have their state, at least, on part of
historical Palestine so
that is an important
episode of the 1948
that doesn't explain
everything but
It shows
It shows how
imperial designs and
dreams of Abdullah to
have a greater Syria meant for him
taking over part of the land that
belongs to the Palestinian people.
We took it for granted
we are in the Arab house and
the Arab house had to defend us
we could not separate between
what is political security international relations
for Arab regime and what is legitimate
and international legitimacy for us
in Palestine
when people left their houses in
48 and went as refugees to Lebanon
or to Jordan or to Syria or to Egypt
they went with the hope to return
within months within days
 
can you say
they were betrayed
can you say they were used
this is history to judge
over 750,000 Palestinian refugees
fled to neighboring Arab countries where
they were housed in camps.
