What next for Palestine and Israel?
Palestine is the name by the Ancient Greeks for an area in the Middle East between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It has a long history of control by various empires including the Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great and the Romans Palestine was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and remained under the rule of the Turks until the end of the First World War, the Turks were defeated by the British. Parts of the Ottoman Empire were handed over to the French to control and parts were handed over to Britain – including Palestine. Britain governed under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1948. For the Arabs it was their homeland which had been promised to them by the Allies for help in defeating the Turks. Palestinian jews claimed the same area of land had also been promised to them in the Balfour Declaration. In August 1929, relations between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine broke down. The focal point of this discontent was Jerusalem. The ma...