Editing Israeli–Palestinian conflict (section)

=== 1936–1939 Arab revolt ===
{{Main|1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine}}
[[File:Resistance of Palestinian men and women.png|right|thumb|The [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt of 1936–1939]] in Palestine, motivated by opposition to mass [[Aliyah|Jewish immigration]] allowed by the British Mandatory authorities.]]

In the early 1930s, the Arab national struggle in Palestine had drawn many Arab nationalist militants from across the Middle East, such as [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam|Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam]] from Syria, who established the Black Hand militant group and had prepared the grounds for the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]]. Following the death of al-Qassam at the hands of the British in late 1935, tensions erupted in 1936 into the Arab general strike and general boycott. The strike soon deteriorated into violence, and the Arab revolt was bloodily repressed by the British assisted by the British armed forces of the [[Jewish Settlement Police]], the [[Jewish Supernumerary Police]], and [[Special Night Squads]].<ref name="HistoryPBS">{{cite web |date=December 2001 |title=History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/pdf/promiese/promises-timeline.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202230446/http://www.pbs.org/pov/pdf/promiese/promises-timeline.pdf |archive-date=2 December 2012 |access-date=14 March 2013 |publisher=PBS}}</ref> The suppression of the revolt would leave at least 10% of the adult male population killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.<ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|loc=Chapter 1}}: "Of all the services Britain provided to the Zionist movement before 1939, perhaps the most valuable was the armed suppression of Palestinian resistance in the form of the revolt. The bloody war waged against the country's majority, which left 10 percent of the adult male Arab population killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled,55 was the best illustration of the unvarnished truths uttered by Jabotinsky about the necessity of the use of force for the Zionist project to succeed. To quash the uprising, the British Empire brought in two additional divisions of troops, squadrons of bombers, and all the paraphernalia of repression that it had perfected over many decades of colonial wars."</ref> Between the expulsion of much of the Arab leadership and the weakening of the economy, the Palestinians would struggle to confront the growing Zionist movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|loc=Chapter 1}}: "IN SPITE OF the sacrifices made—which can be gauged from the very large numbers of Palestinians who were killed, wounded, jailed, or exiled—and the revolt's momentary success, the consequences for the Palestinians were almost entirely negative. The savage British repression, the death and exile of so many leaders, and the conflict within their ranks left the Palestinians divided, without direction, and with their economy debilitated by the time the revolt was crushed in the summer of 1939. This put the Palestinians in a very weak position to confront the now invigorated Zionist movement, which had gone from strength to strength during the revolt, obtaining lavish amounts of arms and extensive training from the British to help them suppress the uprising."</ref>

The cost and risks associated with the revolt and the ongoing [[Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine|inter-communal conflict]] led to a shift in British policies in the region and the appointment of the [[Peel Commission]] which recommended creation of a small Jewish country, which the two main Zionist leaders, [[Chaim Weizmann]] and [[David Ben-Gurion]], accepted on the basis that it would allow for later expansion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Louis |first=William Roger |title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization |year=2006 |publisher=[[I. B. Tauris]] |isbn=978-1-84511-347-6 |page=391}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Benny |author-link=Benny Morris |title=One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict |year=2009 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-15604-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RelhRR-9RUC |page=66 |access-date=27 September 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009012923/https://books.google.com/books?id=6RelhRR-9RUC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004|p=48}}</ref> The subsequent [[White Paper of 1939]], which rejected a Jewish state and sought to limit Jewish immigration to the region, was the breaking point in relations between British authorities and the Zionist movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Shlaim|2015|loc=Prologue: The Zionist Foundation}}: "A white paper of 17 May 1939 abruptly reversed British support for Zionism and for a Jewish state."</ref>