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   the Palestine Mandate in 1923, as part of the Partitioning of the   
   Ottoman Empire following World War I. The Mandate reaffirmed the 1917   
   British commitment to the Balfour Declaration, for the establishment in   
   Palestine of a "National Home" for the Jewish people, with the   
   prerogative to carry it out.[18][19] A British census of 1918 estimated   
   700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews.[18]   
      
   In 1937, following a six-month-long Arab General Strike and armed   
   insurrection which aimed to pursue national independence and secure the   
   country from foreign control, the British established the Peel   
   Commission.[20] The Commission concluded that the Mandate had become   
   unworkable, and recommended Partition into an Arab state linked to   
   Transjordan; a small Jewish state; and a mandatory zone. To address   
   problems arising from the presence of national minorities in each area,   
   it suggested a land and population transfer[21] involving the transfer   
   of some 225,000 Arabs living in the envisaged Jewish state and 1,250   
   Jews living in a future Arab state, a measure deemed compulsory "in the   
   last resort".[21][22][23] To address any economic problems, the Plan   
   proposed avoiding interfering with Jewish immigration, since any   
   interference would be liable to produce an "economic crisis", most of   
   Palestine's wealth coming from the Jewish community. To solve the   
   predicted annual budget deficit of the Arab State and reduction in   
   public services due to loss of tax from the Jewish state, it was   
   proposed that the Jewish state pay an annual subsidy to the Arab state   
   and take on half of the latter's deficit.[21][22][24] The Palestinian   
   Arab leadership rejected partition as unacceptable, given the inequality   
   in the proposed population exchange and the transfer of one-third of   
   Palestine, including most of its best agricultural land, to recent   
   immigrants.[23] The Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion,   
   persuaded the Zionist Congress to lend provisional approval to the Peel   
   recommendations as a basis for further negotiations.[25][26][27][28] In   
   a letter to his son in October 1937, Ben-Gurion explained that partition   
   would be a first step to "possession of the land as a   
   whole".[29][30][31] The same sentiment, that acceptance of partition was   
   a temporary measure beyond which the Palestine would be "redeemed . . in   
   its entirety,"[32] was recorded by Ben-Gurion on other occasions, such   
   as at a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive in June 1938,[33] as well   
   as by Chaim Weizmann.[31][34]   
      
   The British Woodhead Commission was set up to examine the practicality   
   of partition. The Peel plan was rejected and two possible alternatives   
   were considered. In 1938 the British government issued a policy   
   statement declaring that "the political, administrative and financial   
   difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and   
   Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the   
   problem is impracticable". Representatives of Arabs and Jews were   
   invited to London for the St. James Conference, which proved   
   unsuccessful.[35]   
      
   With World War II looming, British policies were influenced by a desire   
   to win Arab world support and could ill afford to engage with another   
   Arab uprising.[36] The MacDonald White Paper of May 1939 declared that   
   it was "not part of [the British government's] policy that Palestine   
   should become a Jewish State", sought to limit Jewish immigration to   
   Palestine and restricted Arab land sales to Jews. However, the League of   
   Nations commission held that the White Paper was in conflict with the   
   terms of the Mandate as put forth in the past. The outbreak of the   
   Second World War suspended any further deliberations.[37][38] The Jewish   
   Agency hoped to persuade the British to restore Jewish immigration   
   rights, and cooperated with the British in the war against Fascism.   
   Aliyah Bet was organized to spirit Jews out of Nazi controlled Europe,   
   despite the British prohibitions. The White Paper also led to the   
   formation of Lehi, a small Jewish organization which opposed the British.   
      
   After World War II, in August 1945 President Truman asked for the   
   admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine[39] but the   
   British maintained limits on Jewish immigration in line with the 1939   
   White Paper. The Jewish community rejected the restriction on   
   immigration and organized an armed resistance. These actions and United   
   States pressure to end the anti-immigration policy led to the   
   establishment of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. In April 1946,   
   the Committee reached a unanimous decision for the immediate admission   
   of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine, rescission of the   
   white paper restrictions of land sale to Jews, that the country be   
   neither Arab nor Jewish, and the extension of U.N. Trusteeship. The U.S.   
   endorsed the Commission's findings concerning Jewish immigration and   
   land purchase restrictions,[40] while the British made their agreement   
   to implementation conditional on U.S. assistance in case of another Arab   
   revolt.[40] In effect, the British continued to carry out their White   
   Paper policy.[41] The recommendations triggered violent demonstrations   
   in the Arab states, and calls for a Jihad and an annihilation of all   
   European Jews in Palestine.[42]   
      
   United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)   
   Further information: UNSCOP   
      
   Map showing Jewish-owned land as of 31 December 1944, including land   
   owned in full, shared in undivided land, and State Lands under   
   concession. This constituted 6% of the total land area or 20% of   
   cultivatable land,[43] of which more than half was held by the JNF and   
   PICA[44]   
   Under the terms of League of Nations A-class mandates each such   
   mandatory territory was to become a sovereign state on termination of   
   its mandate. By the end of World War II, this occurred with all such   
   mandates except Palestine, however the League of Nations itself lapsed   
   in 1946 leading to a legal quandary.[45][46] In February 1947, Britain   
   announced its intent to terminate the Mandate for Palestine, referring   
   the matter of the future of Palestine to the United Nations.[47][48] The   
   hope was that a binational state would ensue, which meant an   
   unpartitioned Palestine. British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin's policy   
   was premised on the idea that an Arab majority would carry the day,   
   which met difficulties with Harry S. Truman who, sensitive to Zionist   
   electoral pressures in the United States, pressed for a British-Zionist   
   compromise.[49] In May, the UN formed the United Nations Special   
   Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to prepare a report on recommendations   
   for Palestine. The Jewish Agency pressed for Jewish representation and   
   the exclusion of both Britain and Arab countries on the Committee,   
   sought visits to camps where Holocaust survivors were interned in Europe   
   as part of UNSCOP's brief, and in May won representation on the   
   Political Committee.[50] The Arab states, convinced statehood had been   
   subverted, and that the transition of authority from the League of   
   Nations to the UN was questionable in law, wished the issues to be   
   brought before an International Court, and refused to collaborate with   
   UNSCOP, which had extended an invitation for liaison also to the Arab   
   Higher Committee.[46][51] In August, after three months of conducting   
   hearings and a general survey of the situation in Palestine, a majority   
   report of the committee recommended that the region be partitioned into   
      
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