What Exactly Was the British ‘Mandate’
The British Mandate was not an actual territory. The Mandate was a legal promise via the League of Nations to the Jewish people for the sole purpose of restoring sovereignty in the Jewish homeland— specifically to uphold the 1920 San Remo Accord and its map of the Jewish homeland, which included all of what would later be stolen (78% of the Judean homeland) and renamed ‘Jordan.’ It also included of course Gaza (Jewish land since 145 BC) and ALL of Judea & Samaria, the region where Jews literally emerged from, from Semitic tribes 4,000 years ago.
Included in the legal promise was to spearhead Jewish immigration for those who wished from the Diaspora back home in a swift manner.
The territory was called Palestine, a word for Judea in usage by the Greeks since the 5th century BC; the Romans borrowed that term in 136 AD as Greek was the lingua franca of the region at that time. Thus, it became a colonizer term for Judea/Israel from 136 AD – 1948.
This is why Jews IN Israel during those 1,812 years were called… Palestinians. The British were not there to plunder resources from the land and take over as was their goal in India. It was to be legal and civil overseers.
However, the legal Mandate only lasted barely two years before Churchill, as Colonial Secretary, violated the legal Mandate by stealing 78% of the Jewish homeland in 1922 and gifting it to Arab occupiers, the Hashemites from Arabia.
Simultaneously, Churchill issued antisemitic White Papers which grossly reduced Jewish immigration back home. This would result in deadly consequences during WWII. Additionally, Jews coming back home were treated as illegal aliens and often placed in detention centers that dotted the country. Atlit being the most notorious. No Arab occupiers coming in, and they were coming in droves during the British occupation years, were subjected to such cruelty as the indigenous Judean race.
What gave rise to the Jewish resistance groups against the British was the cessation of the British Mandate and the swift emergence of a violent-against-Jews British occupation.
Arabs were able to live, post 1922, in both the land renamed to Jordan (Transjordan) AND in the 22% of what was left of Israel. Jews ONLY in the 22% which remained. There never existed any restriction on Arab occupier residence at any point in history since Arabs arrived in Israel in the 7th century AD. The same cannot be said regarding Jewish residential freedom in the Jewish homeland. More recently, the Oslo Terrorist Accords amplified the antisemitic laws of where Jews can live in their own land…of the 22% is left. The criminal giving away of Gaza to terrorists in 2005 even further reduced freedom of movement of Jews in the Judean homeland.
Most Arab occupiers, as late as the early 1940s, also considered themselves to be South Syrians as Israel (Palestine) was merged with Syria administratively for centuries (since 1517 to be precise). It was not until the British fomented Arab riots and attacks against Jews in Palestine that there was any issue with ALL of Palestine belonging only to Jews.
In 1919 when the Faisal-Weizmann agreement was signed, Arabs acknowledged that not one inch of Israel (Palestine) belonged to Arabs and Arabs had their sights set for independence elsewhere.
In the agreement, Emir Faisal clearly distinguished between “The Arab State” and “Palestine” – Palestine meant a sovereign Jewish nation.
Emir Faisal’s goal for the Arabs was a pan-Arab state to include Arab independence in: Syria, Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon (what was emerging as Lebanon). These states represented the overwhelming majority of the previous Ottoman Empire lands. Israel including what would later be renamed to ‘Jordan’ represented about 1% of the land.
Jordan is thus an Arab occupier state IN Israel.
Actual Judean Heroines
The Purim holiday is a wonderful story but historically nonsensical as Persians prior to Islam spreading, were not antisemitic. In fact, they were VERY philosemitic Zoroastrians. The antisemitism under Babylonian rule in earlier times was not actual antisemitism, and the unfair treatment originated from… Babylonians. Persians were also not treated well. It was not antisemitism as the Babylonians did not hate Jews for being Jews, but were treated as military spoils, as were others.
Then, the Achaemenid Empire was started by the VERY philosemitic King Cyrus the Great. Not all his successors were as philosemitic, but none were killing Jews. King Xerxes killed many Greeks but in military battles. And there was no historical record of any Haman.
There was, however, an actual Jewish Persian Queen. Her name was Queen Shushandukht who married a Sassanid King and together had three sons, one of whom went on to be the half Jew King Bahram V. He was very respected and militarily feared in the region.
Queen Shushandukht went on to found numerous Jewish communities in Persia including Susa, Shushtar, and a Jewish neighborhood in Isfahan, though Jews lived there before having an official neighborhood.
Her father was an Exilarch, Huna bar Natan, and thus had a very close relationship with the Sassanid Court.
Historians say it is her body that is buried in ‘Queen Esther’s tomb’ in Hamadan, Iran.
Purim is a beautiful story/holiday (and has become one of my favorites), but let’s also pay homage to our real Jewish Queens who are lost to history.
Ancient Judeans knew more the difference between stories and actual history. For instance, Jews in ancient times knew well that the Chanukkah heroine, Judith, was not a real person, while also recognizing that the actual Chanukkah military victory was very much the epitome of Zionism.
Aside from Queen Shushandukht, one other Judean heroine (of many) ought to be highlighted:
Benvenide Abravanel (late 15th century – 1560s AD) was an extremely wealthy woman, who lived much of her life in what is today Italy, particularly Naples and Ferrara. The Abravanels were a prominent Sephardic family, with their patriarch, Isaac Abravanel, serving as the key advisor to the Catholic King & Queen of Spain before being forced into exile after the 1492 expulsion of Jews (the Alhambra Decree; the conversos were allowed to stay).
The anti-Jewish riots of 1391 in Spain split the Abravanel family, as it did so many Jewish families, into ‘conversos’ and those who remained publicly practicing and identifying Jews. After years of living side by side, the Inquisition was launched to uncover ‘Christians’ who were not practicing the religion, but those who were clinging on to their actual heritage. All Judean conversos of course remained genetic Jews; that is why today 20% of Hispanics and Latinos have significant Judean DNA.
All non-Catholics were ordered to live separately from Catholics (this is how the flamenco dance emerged, from Arabs and Jews living together during this time period in Spain). Though the expulsions of Jews began prior to 1492 in certain cities, it was not made large-scale until the Moors were defeated that year, which unified Spain under Catholic rule, and with fiscal restrictions lifted, Jewish financial services were no longer needed.
Once in Naples, which at the time treated Jews slightly better, though that would take a sharp downward turn in due time, it was Benvenide who carried the prestige of the family forward. So respected was she in that society that Spain’s Viceroy to Naples sent his Christian daughter to live with her to be trained and tutored.
It was that respect that helped Benvenide convince the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1533 to cancel the expulsion of Jews. Jews who remained had to pay an exorbitant amount of money to stay. And thus, at the time, around 200 Jewish families were able to do so. In 1540, a decree was issued which required all Jews to wear an identification badge while in public. That is what finally drove the Abravanel family from Naples to Ferrara, which was a refuge of sorts for Jews in the Tuscany region. Ferrara would become home to another Judean heroine, Gracia Nasi.
At the time, financial lending was one of the few trades allowed for Jews. After her father-in-law (and uncle; she had married her cousin) stepped down from banking, Benvenide went on to expand five branches of the family’s bank.
Benvenide could have easily been a woman of leisure with her family’s wealth, but not only did she work hard in business (later on using the newly established Gutenberg printing press of 1450 to heavily sponsor publication of books on Jewish thought), she is personally accredited with paying the ransom to rescue 1,000 Jewish captives. She was following in the footsteps of her father-in-law who had done similar for Jewish slaves in Morocco.
Her charitable acts were known not only throughout the Jewish Diaspora but also in the Judean homeland. One of her benefactors, on his visit to both the Jewish communities in Egypt and in Israel in 1533, had heard about her generous acts, from local Jews, for Jews worldwide.
*Zionism fact of the week: It is just as ridiculous to say that Israel was ‘established’ in 1948 as it is to say India was ‘established’ in 1947. Israel was liberated (22% of it) by brave Jews after nearly 20 years of fighting the British occupiers. It was that 20-year fight that ended 1,812 years of overall occupation of what was left of the Judean homeland.*