British Mandate Palestine

Palestine had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries. WWI broke Ottoman control. Britain issued the Balfour Declaration (November 1917):

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

The Balfour Declaration committed Britain to two contradictory promises: support for a Jewish national home, and protection of the rights of the Arab majority. After WWI, Palestine became a British mandate under the League of Nations. Between 1920 and 1948, Jewish immigration to Palestine accelerated, especially as Nazi persecution drove Jews out of Europe in the 1930s. Tensions produced repeated outbreaks of violence.