PALESTINE AT THE CROSSROADS: EVALUATING ZIONIST CLAIMS AND THE BRITISH MANDATE

Abstract

This study examines the legal nature of the British mandate over Palestine following World War I and critically analyzes the claims of the Zionist movement regarding its historical and religious connection to the land. Using legal-analytical, critical, and statutory approaches, the study draws on Zionist, Jewish, Arab, and foreign sources. Findings reveal that the Zionist movement was primarily established to consolidate European Jewish efforts toward creating a national homeland in Palestine, supported by colonial European powers under arguments that contradicted historical and archaeological evidence in the region. Britain, through the Balfour Declaration, aimed to advance the Zionist project in Palestine, thereby facilitating the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the colonization of the Arabian Peninsula in collaboration with France. Moreover, the British Mandate for Palestine was ratified only by the Principal Allied Powers of World War I, lacking genuine international consensus and thereby violating principles of international law