British Mandate of Palestine. Specifically

¶ … British Mandate of Palestine. Specifically it will compare and contrast the conflicts of that time with the conflicts of today, and any similarities and laws that apply. The British Mandate of Palestine occurred after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Under the Mandate, Britain ruled Palestine until 1948, and it was during this time that the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in Palestine.

The League of Nations created the Mandate in 1920, after World War I ended, and it was put into effect in 1922. The editors of PalestineFacts.org note, "The Mandate was international recognition for the stated purpose of 'establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people'."

Before the Mandate, the Ottoman Empire had ruled over the entire area, but the Empire fell after World War I, and Britain and France, who has colonies in the area, took over areas to govern until they areas could stand on their own. The British Mandate of Palestine was one of these partitions that eventually would lead to self-government.

The Mandate remained in effect until 1948, when the United Nations created the nation of Israel out of Palestine, and broke up the British Mandate. This is significant because it created extreme tension in the region that remains to this day, and it split many Palestinians from their homelands into the nation of Israel. It also left many Jewish residents in Palestine. There were numerous conflicts during the Mandate, many border skirmishes because the boundary lines of Palestine and the surrounding countries kept changing, but because the British were quite open to Jewish immigration into the country. Another historian notes, "Under the British Mandate government, not only did the floodgates of Jewish immigration open, but Palestinians also experienced the growth of a separate Jewish economy. Intent on conquering land and labor, the new Zionist arrivals created their exclusive economic monopolies."

Thus, the Mandate really helped build the tensions in the area by bringing in more Jews, and it helped create the divide between Palestinians and Jews long before the creation of Israel. There were also many areas of the Mandate that were closed to Jewish immigration, and immigration was severely limited after 1939. When Israel was created, "1.8 million people lived the western area of the Mandate, estimated to be 600,000 Jews and 1.2 million Arabs. Following the war between the Jews and the Arabs in 1948, the inhabited areas of the 14,000 square kilometers were divided along cease-fire lines between Israel and Jordan/Egypt."

It is important to note that the Mandate determined the boundaries of Palestine, and these changed often, especially during the first decade of the Mandate, but changes continued throughout the Mandate's history. An expert in the area notes, "Apart from the diversion in the Golan Heights - which did not receive international recognition - the borderlines that were set during the first decade of the British rule of Palestine continue to be valid today, dozens of years later and after the region has gone through several extensive political changes."

Tensions between Israel and Palestine have always been volatile, and today is no exception. Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip because they say rocket attacks into Israel by Palestinians came from the area, and they have been bombing and attacking the area since December 2008. It is not the first time the neighboring nations have clashed. Continually, throughout Israel's history, there have been wars and skirmishes between Palestine and Israel, one of the most famous is the longstanding battle between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Yasser Arafat, which has a long history of attempting to recreate the land of Palestine by defeating Israel.

Perhaps one of the most important developments during the British Mandate has nothing to do with immigration, land boundaries, or control of the area. It is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, near the Dead Sea in Palestine, that represents one of the greatest contributions to world society by the area. The scrolls were discovered in several caves near the Dead Sea beginning in 1947, when the country was still under the British Mandate. Eventually, thousands of scrolls were discovered, and they represent early Jewish writings, including most of the texts of the Old and New Testaments of the Hebrew Bible. They are incredibly important because they show how Jewish society went from a sacrificial pagan belief system to the modern Jewish religion. The Editors from the Jewish Museum note, "They represent the important transformation that occurred in Jewish worship from sacrifice to Bible study and prayer, the debates among Jewish groups of the Second Temple Period, and the indirect connections between the scrolls and early Christianity."

The scrolls are now touring the world so visitors can see them in various art museums, and some of them reside in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Even today, decades after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls have not all been translated, but they are recognized as one of the most important finds in the area's history, and the initial discovery happened during the time of the British Mandate. This meant that British scholars were some of the first people to study and understand the significance of the manuscripts and what they meant to the history of the Jewish religion and Christianity.

The laws that governed the British Mandate are long gone today, replaced with Israeli law, and with fighting for land. The Israelis have started several wars that ended up with them claiming territory and settling it, including annexing the Golan Heights from Syria after the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and the Gaza Strip after the 1967 Six Days' War with Egypt. Gaza is no longer a part of Israel or under Israeli law since 2005, and it actually does not belong to any nation, but it is under Palestinian control. Many believe that Israel has often been the aggressor in the area, and that Israel does not always abide by the laws and regulations that have been drawn up by the United Nations and other agencies to try to bring peace to the area. Another author notes, "Many have argued that, if Israel abided by Resolution 242, which they claim requires Israel to withdraw from the territories captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be resolved."