The Rape of Palestine: A Mandate Chronology

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This book chronicles the dialogue between colonised Palestinians and their British colonisers during the Mandate years from November 1917 to May 1948. It details 490 manifestos, letters, policy statements, petitions, resolutions, and debates exchanged between the British and indigenous Palestinians. Key documents include Samuel’s The Future of Palestine, the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations Covenant, and reports from the Palestine Arab Congress and various investigations. It highlights the positions of Palestinian Delegations to London, the Churchill, Passfield, and MacDonald White Papers, petitions to the League of Nations, and debates in Parliament. Notable figures such as Musa Kazem al-Husseini, Awni Abdul Hadi, and Amin al-Husseini are discussed, alongside the UN General Assembly's involvement. The main sources include records from the National Archives in Kew, online materials from universities and historians, and secondary sources on the Mandate. The narrative illustrates Britain's three-decade appropriation of Palestine, setting the stage for its takeover in 1948 by Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. Ultimately, the Palestinians sought independence, while the British consistently denied it. The book honors those Palestinians who fought for self-determination and the often-overlooked freedom fighters and historians who documented these events.