October 24, 1915
The Hussein-McMahon correspondence commences between an Arab leader and a key British government official. Between 1915 and 1916, British High Commissioner in Cairo Sir Henry McMahon corresponds with the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein Ibn Ali, through a series of letters. In them, the British government agrees to support the Sharif’s bid for the restoration of the caliphate (and leadership in the Arab world) in exchange for his support of the British war effort against the Ottoman Empire. Palestine is not mentioned in this exchange. Hussein, however, subsequently claims that the land of Palestine is included in the area to be part of Arab administration assisted by the British.
During World War I, Britain, France, Russia and Italy, allies against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, establish understandings and alliances with one another and with various Arab and Zionist leaders about how the Middle East would look after the war. These included the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. However, these agreements — some secret, some public — are vague and seemingly conflict with one another. A major controversy centers on whether the area of Palestine — not yet defined in specific geographic terms — is to be reserved for the Zionists to create a national home or to be included in an area under Arab control. The controversy spills into the public domain with the publication of the 1937 Peel Commission Report and George Antonius’ “Arab Awakening” (1938). The British in 1939 review these statements, promises and alliances and conclude that Palestine is not included in the promises made to Sharif Hussein in 1915-1916.
Read the text of the October 24, 1915, correspondence.