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Mandate for Palestine

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aliasesPalestine Mandate, League of Nations Mandate for Palestine

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Summary

The instrument confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations at London on 24 July 1922 (League document C. 529. M. 314. 1922. VI), entrusting the administration of Palestine to His Britannic Majesty as Mandatory: its preamble makes the Mandatory responsible for putting the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917 into effect, and its 28 articles define the Mandatory’s powers and duties, from the establishment of the Jewish National Home and the development of self-governing institutions to the Article 25 power to postpone or withhold its provisions east of the Jordan (Mandate for Palestine (1922), PDF p.1-13).

Details

  • Article 1 gives the Mandatory full powers of legislation and administration, save as limited by the mandate’s terms; Article 2 charges it with securing the establishment of the Jewish national home and the development of self-governing institutions, and with safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all inhabitants irrespective of race and religion (PDF p.8).

  • Article 4 recognises an appropriate Jewish agency as a public body; the Zionist organisation is recognised as such agency so long as its organisation and constitution are in the Mandatory’s opinion appropriate (PDF p.9).

  • Article 6 requires the Administration to facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and to encourage close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes, while ensuring the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced (PDF p.9).

  • Article 7 requires a nationality law facilitating acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who take up permanent residence (PDF p.9).

  • Article 22 makes English, Arabic and Hebrew the official languages of Palestine (PDF p.12).

  • Article 24 requires an annual report to the League Council; Article 26 sends unsettled interpretation disputes with another League Member to the Permanent Court of International Justice; Article 27 requires the Council’s consent to any modification (PDF p.13).

  • Article 25 entitles the Mandatory, with the Council’s consent, to postpone or withhold in the territories between the Jordan and Palestine’s eastern boundary such provisions as it considers inapplicable to local conditions, save Articles 15, 16 and 18 (PDF p.13).

  • Simpson’s report turns repeatedly on Article 6: it is doubtful whether Article 6 received sufficient consideration in the Sursock lands sales; the persistent boycott of Arab labour in the Zionist colonies is “not only contrary to the provisions of that article of the Mandate” but a source of danger; and dispossessing Arabs on the remaining Government lands to make them available for Jewish settlement “would amount to a distinct breach of the provisions of Article 6 of the Mandate” (Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development, lines 1280-1290, 1320-1330, 1455-1465).

Mandate for Palestine (1922), League of Nations, Balfour Declaration, Mandate system, Jewish Agency, Transjordan

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