Who Owns Palestine?

People keep talking about Palestine as Arab land. Even I have used that term when discussing the refusal to accept the UN partition plan.

But what is the legal basis for that claim? I never thought about it in those terms. I simply figured that the Arabs lived there so they considered it their land. However it turns out there is a legal basis for the Arab claim that Palestine is an Arab state or should be an Arab state.

Of course it's the fault of the British.

During World War I the British made multiple agreements with different parties about the land controlled by the Ottoman Empire. 

One of these agreements was in a series of letters between Sharif Husayn of Mecca and Sir Henry McMahon in which agreement was reached about Arab aid against the Ottoman Empire in exchange for British recognition of an independent Arab state.

In a letter dated July 14th, 1915 Sharif Husayn laid out the Arab conditions including the anticipated boundaries of the Arab state.

"Firstly.- England will acknowledge the independence of the Arab countries, bounded on the north by Mersina and Adana up to the 37th degree of latitude, on which degree fall Birijik, Urfa, Mardin, Midiat, Jezirat (Ibn 'Umar), Amadia, up to the border of Persia; on the east by the borders of Persia up to the Gulf of Basra; on the south by the Indian Ocean, with the exception of the position of Aden to remain as it is; on the west by the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea up to Mersina. England to approve the proclamation of an Arab Khalifate of Islam."

In a letter dated August 30th, 1915, McMahon responded: "With regard to the questions of limits and boundaries, it would appear to be premature to consume our time in discussing such details in the heat of war..."

Sharif Husayn expressed his disappointment with this response in a letter dated September 9th, 1915:

"Nevertheless, your Excellency will pardon me and permit me to say clearly that the coolness and hesitation which you have displayed in the question of the limits and boundaries... might be taken to infer an estrangement or something of the sort."

McMahon in a letter dated October 24th, 1915 moved to alleviate Sharif Husayn's concerns.

"I regret that you should have received from my last letter the impression that I regarded the question of the limits and boundaries with coldness and hesitation; such was not the case, but it appeared to me that the time had not yet come when that question could be discussed in a conclusive manner. 

I have realised, however, from your last letter that you regard this question as one of vital and urgent importance. I have, therefore, lost no time in informing the Government of Great Britain of the contents of your letter, and it is with great pleasure that I communicate to you on their behalf the following statement, which I am confident you will receive with satisfaction:- 

The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the limits demanded."

"With the above modification, and without prejudice of our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept those limits."

The British took the position that this excluded Palestine from the agreed upon boundaries and the Palestinian Arabs claimed that it did not. Talks intended to resolve the differences failed and in the White Paper of 1939 Britain stated:

"In the recent discussions the Arab delegations have repeated the contention that Palestine was included within the area in which Sir Henry McMahon, on behalf of the British Government, in October, 1915, undertook to recognise and support Arab independence...His Majesty's Government regret the misunderstandings which have arisen as regards some of the phrases used. For their part they can only adhere...to the view that the whole of Palestine west of Jordan was excluded from Sir Henry McMahon's pledge, and they therefore cannot agree that the McMahon correspondence forms a just basis for the claim that Palestine should be converted into an Arab State."

In the same White Paper Britain rejects the idea of the whole of Palestine becoming a Jewish State.

"When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and pride."

What the paper does suggest is a multi-national state with each group participating in the government in proportion to the size of the population.

"The independent State should be one in which Arabs and Jews share government in such a way as to ensure that the essential interests of each community are safeguarded."

This recommendation contradicted the conclusion of the 1937 Peel Commission that concluded that Palestine had two distinct societies with irreconcilable political demands, thus making it necessary to partition the land.