Palestinians

===British Mandate (1917–1947)===
{{Main|Mandatory Palestine}}
[[File:Map of Mandatory Palestine in 1946 with major cities (in English).svg|thumb|340x340px|Mandatory Palestine in 1946]]
The first Palestinian nationalist organizations emerged at the end of the [[World War I]].<ref>Benny Morris, ''Righteous Victims'', p. 48 in the French edition.</ref> Two political factions emerged. ''[[al-Muntada al-Adabi]]'', dominated by the [[Nashashibi]] family, militated for the promotion of the Arabic language and culture, for the defense of Islamic values and for an independent Syria and Palestine. In [[Damascus]], ''al-Nadi al-Arabi'', dominated by the [[Husayni]] family, defended the same values.<ref>[[Benny Morris]], ''Righteous Victims'', p.49 in the French edition.</ref>

Article 22 of The Covenant of the [[League of Nations]] conferred an international legal status upon the territories and people which had ceased to be under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire as part of a 'sacred trust of civilization'. Article 7 of the League of Nations Mandate required the establishment of a new, separate, Palestinian nationality for the inhabitants. This meant that Palestinians did not become British citizens, and that Palestine was not annexed into the British dominions.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GniaXe2wnRQC&pg=PA49|title=International Law Reports: Cases 1938–1940, H. Lauterpacht, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-46354-8, page 49|access-date=22 April 2009|isbn=978-0-521-46354-6|author1=Lauterpacht, H|year=1942|publisher=Cambridge University Press|archive-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129193100/https://books.google.com/books?id=GniaXe2wnRQC&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> The Mandate document divided the population into Jewish and non-Jewish, and Britain, the Mandatory Power considered the Palestinian population to be composed of religious, not national, groups. Consequently, government censuses in 1922 and 1931 would categorize Palestinians confessionally as Muslims, Christians and Jews, with the category of Arab absent.<ref>Weldon Matthews, ''Confronting an Empire, Constructing a Nation,''I.B. Tauris, 2006, p. 33. Both Weldon Matthews and Prasenjit Duara interpret this aspect of the mandate system as tailored to the needs of imperial powers, which found it useful to avoid classifying colonies as nations: "This outlook was carried over to Palestine from India and Egypt where British administrators did not merely doubt the existence of a unifying national identity, but thwarted its development by creating sectarian institutions as a matter of policy."</ref>[[File:Musa Al-Alami 1918.jpg|thumb|[[Musa Alami]] (1897–1984) was a Palestinian nationalist and politician,  viewed in the 1940s as the leader of the Palestinians|left]]

The articles of the Mandate mentioned the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine, but not their political status. At the [[San Remo conference]], it was decided to accept the text of those articles, while inserting in the minutes of the conference an undertaking by the Mandatory Power that this would not involve the surrender of any of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine. In 1922, the British authorities over Mandatory Palestine proposed a draft constitution that would have granted the Palestinian Arabs representation in a Legislative Council on condition that they accept the terms of the mandate. The Palestine Arab delegation rejected the proposal as "wholly unsatisfactory", noting that "the People of Palestine" could not accept the inclusion of the Balfour Declaration in the constitution's preamble as the basis for discussions. They further took issue with the designation of Palestine as a British "colony of the lowest order."<ref>{{cite web|title=Correspondence with the Palestine Arab Delegation and the Zionist Organization |website=United Nations |date=21 February 1922 |access-date=1 August 2007 |url=http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0145a8233e14d2b585256cbf005af141/48a7e5584ee1403485256cd8006c3fbe!OpenDocument |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016050752/http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0145a8233e14d2b585256cbf005af141/48a7e5584ee1403485256cd8006c3fbe%21OpenDocument |archive-date=16 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Arabs tried to get the British to offer an Arab legal establishment again roughly ten years later, but to no avail.<ref name="Continuum">"Palestine Arabs." ''The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East''. Ed. [[Avraham Sela]]. New York: Continuum, 2002.</ref>

After the British general, Louis Bols, read out the [[Balfour Declaration]] in February 1920, some 1,500 Palestinians demonstrated in the streets of Jerusalem.<ref name="HistoryOfPalestinianRevolts" />

A month later, during the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, the protests against British rule and Jewish immigration became violent and Bols banned all demonstrations. In May 1921 however, further anti-Jewish riots [[Jaffa riots|broke out in Jaffa]] and dozens of Arabs and Jews were killed in the confrontations.<ref name="HistoryOfPalestinianRevolts" />

After the [[1920 Nebi Musa riots]], the [[San Remo conference]] and the failure of [[Faisal I of Iraq|Faisal]] to establish the Kingdom of [[Greater Syria]], a distinctive form of Palestinian Arab nationalism took root between April and July 1920.<ref>[[Benny Morris]], ''Righteous Victims'', pp. 49–50 in the French edition.</ref><ref>[[Tom Segev]], ''One Palestine, Complete'', p. 139n.</ref> With the fall of the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the French conquest of [[Syria]], coupled with the British conquest and administration of Palestine, the formerly pan-Syrianist [[mayor of Jerusalem]], [[Musa Qasim Pasha al-Husayni]], said "Now, after the recent events in [[Damascus]], we have to effect a complete change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine".<ref>Khalidi, 1997, p. 165.</ref>

Conflict between Palestinian nationalists and various types of pan-Arabists continued during the British Mandate, but the latter became increasingly marginalized. Two prominent leaders of the Palestinian nationalists were [[Mohammad Amin al-Husayni]], Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, appointed by the British, and [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam]].<ref name=HistoryOfPalestinianRevolts>{{cite web|title=The History of Palestinian Revolts|publisher=[[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]|date=9 December 2003|access-date=17 August 2007|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9A489B74-6477-4E67-9C22-0F53A3CC9ADF.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051215061527/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9A489B74-6477-4E67-9C22-0F53A3CC9ADF.htm |archive-date=15 December 2005 }}</ref> After the killing of sheikh [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam]] by the British in 1935, his followers initiated the [[1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine]], which began with a [[general strike]] in Jaffa and attacks on Jewish and British installations in [[Nablus]].<ref name=HistoryOfPalestinianRevolts/> The [[Arab Higher Committee]] called for a nationwide general strike, non-payment of taxes, and the closure of municipal governments, and demanded an end to Jewish immigration and a ban of the sale of land to Jews. By the end of 1936, the movement had become a national revolt, and resistance grew during 1937 and 1938. In response, the British declared [[martial law]], dissolved the Arab High Committee and arrested officials from the Supreme Muslim Council who were behind the revolt. By 1939, 5,000 Arabs had been killed in British attempts to quash the revolt; more than 15,000 were wounded.<ref name=HistoryOfPalestinianRevolts/>