Historic Context: The Case of Palestine Five major periods or episodes of forcible displacement transformed Palestinians into the largest and longest-standing unresolved refugee case in the world today. By the end of 2012, an estimated 7.4 million (66 percent) of the global Palestinian population of 11.2 million are forcibly displaced persons.25 The British Mandate (1922-1947) During the First World War, the Allied Forces under British command occupied Palestine. Palestine was then one of several Arab territories ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The British government had secretly come to terms with France and Tsarist Russia in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, determining that parts of Palestine would fall under its sphere of influence with the anticipated decline of the Ottoman Empire.26 Additionally, in November 1917, the British cabinet issued the Balfour Declaration, a one-page letter from the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Arthur Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, head of the British Zionist Federation. The Balfour declaration granted explicit recognition of, and support for, the idea of establishing a Jewish “national home” in Palestine through immigration and colonization.27 In 1920, the League of Nations entrusted the temporary administration (“Mandate”) of Palestine to Great Britain, as a “Class A” Mandate – a categorization closest to independence.28 25 BADIL Resource Center for Residency and Refugee Rights. Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2010-2012,. Vol. VII. Bethlehem, Palestine, 2012. 26 The British were allotted direct rule over Haifa and Akka, and the south of the country was to be part of the “Arab state under British protection.” The heartland of Palestine was to be under the control of all three powers. 27 The Balfour Declaration is reprinted in Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Reprinted in full with permission from Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991, p. 1. Prior to issuing the final Declaration, the British obtained the assent of the United States. The U.S. Congress subsequently adopted a resolution on June 30, 1922, “[f]avoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” McCarthy, Justin, The Population of Palestine: Population Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990, p. 21. 28 The Mandate did not come into force until 29 September, 1923. Class A Mandates was designated for areas deemed to “have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone.” The Mandate for Palestine, 24 July, 1922, is reprinted in Survey of Palestine, Vol. I. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991, p. 4–11. 15