Editing History of Israel (section)

===World War I===
{{Main|Sinai and Palestine campaign|Balfour Declaration}}
[[File:Area_of_the_OETA.svg|thumb|[[Occupied Enemy Territory Administration]], 1918]]
During [[World War I]], most Jews supported the Germans because they were fighting the Russians who were regarded as the Jews' main enemy.<ref>Weizmann, the Making of a Statesman by [[Jehuda Reinharz]], Oxford 1993, chapters 3 & 4</ref> In Britain, the government sought Jewish support for the war effort for a variety of reasons including an antisemitic perception of "Jewish power" in the Ottoman Empire's [[Young Turks]] movement which was based in [[Thessaloniki]], the most Jewish city in Europe (40% of the 160,000 population were Jewish).<ref>[[David Fromkin]], ''[[A Peace to End All Peace]]'', part VI, pp. 253–305</ref> The British also hoped to secure American Jewish support for US intervention on Britain's behalf.

There was already sympathy for the aims of [[Zionism]] in the British government, including the Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George|Lloyd George]].<ref>''God, Guns and Israel'', Jill Hamilton, UK 2004, Especially chapter 14.</ref> Over 14,000 Jews were expelled by the Ottoman military commander from the Jaffa area in 1914–1915, due to suspicions they were subjects of Russia, an enemy, or Zionists wishing to detach Palestine from the Ottoman Empire,<ref>Jonathan Marc Gribetz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=XYSiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 ''Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030017/https://books.google.com/books?id=XYSiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[Princeton University Press]], 2014 {{isbn|978-1-400-85265-9}} p.131.</ref> and when the [[Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation|entire population, including Muslims, of both Jaffa and Tel Aviv was subject to an expulsion order in April 1917]], the affected Jews could not return until the [[Sinai and Palestine Campaign#Palestine campaign|British conquest ended in 1918]], which drove the Turks out of Southern Syria.<ref>''God, Guns and Israel'', Jill Hamilton, UK 2004, Especially chapter 15</ref> A year prior, in 1917, the British foreign minister, [[Arthur Balfour]], sent a public letter to the British [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Lord Rothschild]], a leading member of his party and leader of the Jewish community. The letter subsequently became known as the [[Balfour Declaration]]. It stated that the British Government "view[ed] with favour the establishment in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] of a national home for the Jewish people". The declaration provided the British government with a pretext for claiming and governing the country.<ref>''A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East'' by James Barr, Simon & Schuster 2011, pages 375–376.</ref> New Middle Eastern boundaries were decided [[Sykes–Picot Agreement|by an agreement]] between British and French bureaucrats.

A [[Jewish Legion]] composed largely of Zionist volunteers organized by [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] and [[Joseph Trumpeldor]] participated in the British invasion. It also participated in the failed [[Gallipoli Campaign]]. The [[Nili]] Zionist spy network provided the British with details of Ottoman plans and troop concentrations.<ref>Stanford J. Shaw, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_GQTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 ''The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030025/https://books.google.com/books?id=_GQTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[New York University Press]] {{isbn|978-0-814-77924-8}} 1991 p.235.</ref>

The Ottoman Empire chose to ally itself with Germany when the first war began. Arab leaders dreamed of freeing themselves from Ottoman rule and establishing self-government or forming an independent Arab state. Therefore, Britain contacted [[Hussein bin Ali]] of the [[Kingdom of Hejaz]] and proposed cooperation. Together they organized the [[Arab revolt]] that Britain supplied with very large quantities of rifles and ammunition. In cooperation between British artillery and Arab infantry, the city of [[Aqaba]] on the Red Sea was conquered. The Arab army then continued north while Britain attacked the ottomans from the sea. In 1917-1918, Jerusalem and Damascus were conquered from the ottomans. Britain then broke off cooperation with the Arab army. It turned out that Britain had already entered into the secret [[Sykes–Picot Agreement]] that meant that only Britain and France would be allowed to administer the land conquered from the Ottoman Empire.

After pushing out the Ottomans, Palestine came under martial law. The British, French and Arab [[Occupied Enemy Territory Administration]] governed the area shortly before the [[Armistice of Mudros|armistice with the Ottomans]] until the promulgation of the mandate in 1920.