1919-1923
Third wave of over 35,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to 12% of total. Registered Jewish landownership (1923) totals 3% of area of country.
1919, 27 January-10 February
First Palestinian National Congress in Jerusalem sends memoranda to Paris Peace Conference rejecting Balfour Declaration and demanding independence.
28 August
Paris Peace Conference sends Commission of Inquiry to Near East, led by U.S. commission members Henry C. King and Charles Crane. England and France decline to participate. Commission recommends “serious modification” of idea of “making Palestine distinctly a Jewish Commonwealth.”
1920, April
Disturbances in Palestine; 5 Jews killed, 200 wounded. British appoint Palin Commission of Inquiry .Commission report attributes troubles to not fulfilling the promises of Arab independence and fear of political and economic consequences of Zionism.
25 April
Palestine Mandate assigned to Britain by Supreme Council of San Remo Peace Conference.
May
British prevent Second Palestinian National Congress from convening.
1 July
High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, an Anglo-Jewish politician, inaugurates British civilian administration.
December
Third Palestinian National Congress, meeting in Haifa, elects Executive Committee, which remains in control of Palestinian political movement from 1920 to 1935.
1921, March
Founding of the Haganah, the Zionists’ terrorist organization organization.
1 May
Disturbances in Jaffa protesting large-scale Zionist immigration; 46 Jews killed, 146 wounded. British Haycraft Commission of Inquiry (October) attributes disturbances to fears of Zionist mass immigration.
8 May
Haj Amin al-Husayni appointed Mufti of Jerusalem.
May-June
Fourth Palestinian National Congress, convening in Jerusalem, decides to send a Palestinian delegation to London to explain the Palestinian case against the Balfour Declaration.
1922, 3 June
British colonial secretary Winston Churchill issues White Paper excluding Transjordan from scope of Balfour Declaration. Ignoring political criteria, White Paper authorizes Jewish immigration according to “economic absorptive capacity” of the country.
24 July
League of Nations Council approves Mandate for Palestine.
August
Fifth Palestinian National Congress, meeting in Nablus, agrees to economic boycott of Zionists (see 1901 entry on JNF).
October – First British census of Palestine shows population of 757,182 -78% Muslim Arab, 11% Jewish, 9.6% Christian Arab. It is often claimed that Palestine was empty until Zionist Jews made the Palestinian desert bloom.