How long did the turks control palestine

In them, a clear distinction between Palestinian citizens and foreigners was drawn. Governmental and judicial practice in Palestine, together with international supporting factors, gave effect to these instruments , as I shall explain below. The Order intended to execute, through domestic legislation, the international obligations laid down in the Mandate.

It was regarded, both substantively and administratively, as a constitution — it set up the legal foundations for the Legislature as well as the Judiciary and the Executive in Palestine. In several cases before the Supreme Court of Palestine, it was confirmed that the said Order in Council had a constitutional value to the extent that all lower-level legislation should comply with it and all authorities had to adhere to its provisions, including the High Commissioner. These special articles came as a result of the ongoing effects of the capitulation system that had been applicable in the Ottoman Empire in previous centuries favoring Western states and Japan.

Thus, as Paul Ghali rightly observed, this definition constituted a practical amendment to the Ottoman Nationality Law of Such legislative instruments had been operative besides the existing regulations on migration and passports. Mavrommatis, a Greek citizen, under contracts and agreements he concluded with the Ottoman authorities regarding concessions for certain public works to be constructed in Palestine Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, Jaffa.

This late enactment was questioned at the international level. In , the Permanent Mandate s Commission of the League of Nations asked Britain, inter alia , whether it had enacted a nationality law for Palestine. The commission also enquired as to whether that law had been framed in such a way as to facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews whose permanent residence in Palestine was established in accordance with Article 7 of the Mandate.

Thus, draft legislation on nationality was apparently ready at the time. Yet it seems that Britain waited to acquire full legal basis for its presence in the country by concluding a peace agreement with Turkey. Three years later, however, these persons would ultimately be granted Palestinian nationality by naturalization under a special proviso inserted in the Palestinian Citizenship Order — Article 5 1. In a case before the Supreme Court of Palestine regarding the extradition of two persons residing in Jerusalem, the Court, inter alia , stated:.

They had applied and obtained provisional certificates of special [Palestinian] citizenship, which were issued by the Government [of Palestine] prior to the enactment of the Palestine Citizenship Order in Council.

Palestinian nationality had yet to be de jure acknowledged from the standpoint of international law. This was because the entry into force of the peace treaty between Turkey and the Allies including Britain , on the basis of which Palestine would officially and definitively be separated from Turkey, was still pending.

He or she should be, first, a Turkish subject, or citizen. Nor were Ottomans residing outside Palestine on the date mentioned above deemed as Palestinians; an exception was applied to those individuals who were born in Palestine and who fell under Article 34 of the Treaty, as we shall see. It constituted a declaration of existing international law and the standard practice of states.

This was despite the absence of a definite international law rule of state succession under which the nationals of predecessor state could ipso facto acquire the nationality of the successor. The inhabitants of Palestine, as the successors of this territory, henceforth acquired Palestinian nationality even if there was no treaty with Turkey.

A similar clause to the latter article was instead embodied, as already detailed, in Article 7 of the Palestine Mandate. Hence, both the Mandate and the Treaty of Lausanne complemented one another on nationality. In Egypt, as noted earlier, the Treaty entered into force retroactively on 5 November and Ottoman inhabitants were considered Egyptians from that date on.

An example of this can be found in a judgment passed in an international tribunal in Egypt, which relates to all mandated territories detached from Turkey in pursuant to the Treaty. Syrians and Lebanese must, therefore, be considered in Egypt as foreigners on the same basis as the subjects of countries which had been detached from the Turkish Empire prior to the Great War.

In case of conflict, the Treaty would prevail over the local law as it provided a broader basis. Article 34 of the Treaty runs, in part, as follows:. This right of option must be exercised within two years from the coming into force of the present Treaty.

Most of these individuals, overwhelmingly Arab, resided mostly in Europe and the Americas; they were thus prevented from returning home and became stateless see below.

For instance, the Bon Voisinage Agreement between Syria and Palestine of , mentioned above, stipulated in Article 10 that the nationality of inhabitants living near Syrian and Lebanese border could be determined, should any conflict arise, in accordance with Articles of the Treaty.

The Treaty was additionally invoked several times in judicial proceedings before Palestinian courts. The third was designed to grant Palestinian nationality to immigrants by naturalization. Each of these provisions, along with its practical effects within Palestine, will be briefly addressed here. While Palestinian nationality in accordance with international law the Treaty of Lausanne was created, as shown above, on 6 August , the same nationality was effectively created on 1 August based on domestic law the Palestinian Citizenship Order.

However, the exact number of Turkish subjects may be obtained by deducting the number of foreigners from the overall population of Palestine. The total number of registered immigrants from to was 79, persons. The remaining inhabitants were Turkish subjects. Those were the majority of inhabitants who acquired Palestinian nationality based on the aforementioned Article 1, paragraph 1. In mid, the number of Arabs in the total population was , inhabitants: , Muslims and 75, Christians.

The number of Arab immigrants who entered Palestine and registered therein as residents from to was 2, On the other hand, the number of Jews within the total population, at the same moment, was , This right of option must be exercised within two years of the coming into force of this Order. However, in November , the British High Commissioner for Palestine decided that the right of option should begin retroactively from 6 August This less than nine-month period 16 November to 5 August was insufficient for natives who were working or studying abroad to return home.

Consequently, most of these natives became stateless. On one hand, they had lost their Turkish nationality by virtue of the Treaty of Lausanne, on the other hand, they could not acquire Palestinian nationality according to the Citizenship Order. Some prediction is still possible, nonetheless. In , a British report estimated the number to be at Certain data suggest that the total number of emigrants from the Greater Syria — from Lebanon and Palestine, in particular — to the Americas up to amounted to about , persons.

Henceforth, only a very limited number of natives were able to get Palestinian nationality; in , it was documented that only persons of those who were born in Palestine and who were residing abroad could have acquired Palestinian nationality since These people constitute, it can be safely said, the first generation of Palestinian refugees.

Article 7 of the Order which practically translated Article 7 of the Palestine Mandate , inter alia , provided:.

Chief Immigration Officer. The Court held:. This has been done by the passing of the Palestine Citizenship Order, , in which there are embodied, in Art.

Flournoy, Jr. Hudson, eds. Lippincott Company, ; Y. Oppenheim, International Law, H. The main problem after the war for Palestine was perceived beliefs. The Arabs had joined the Allies to fight the Turks during the war and convinced themselves that they were due to be given what they believed was their land once the war was over. Clashing with this was the belief among all Jews that the Balfour Declaration had promised them the same piece of territory.

In August , relations between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine broke down. The focal point of this discontent was Jerusalem. The primary cause of trouble was the increased influx of Jews who had emigrated to Palestine. The number of Jews in the region had doubled in ten years. The city of Jerusalem also had major religious significance for both Arabs and Jews and over deaths occurred in just four days in August 23rd to the 26th.

He claimed that the number of Jews threatened the very lifestyle of the Arabs in Palestine. The violence that occurred in August did not deter Jews from going to Palestine. In , 4, Jews emigrated to the region. In , it was 61, In May , more violence occurred and the British had to restore law and order using the military. Thirty four soldiers were killed in the process. The violence did not stop. In fact, it became worse after November Ottoman troops were trying to block the British by holding the Gaza-Beersheba line.

Conflicts intensified in Gaza. The Ottoman army stopped the British by winning the first Gaza battle in March and the second Gaza battle in April Then the British sent Edmund Allenby, an important commander who had fought on the Western front.

Erich von Falkenhayn, who had fought on the Western front, was appointed head of the group. Against the advancing enemy, Enver Pasha could not decide where to concentrate his troops. While the southern fronts were falling one by one, there were still Ottoman troops on the European front.

Due to strategic and tactical mistakes, the Ottomans were caught weak on the Palestinian front. There was also a division of views between German and Turkish commanders. Edmund Allenby of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force tried to open the way to Jerusalem by ceaselessly operating after his arrival in Cairo in June, eventually breaking down the Ottoman defenses.

The British intensified their bombing and turned Gaza into rubble. Refet Bele Pasha chose to take a stand instead of retreating. However, the Ottomans from Gaza on Nov. As the Ottoman units retreated, they lost the majority of their equipment as well as suffering significant human losses. The British won the third Gaza battle, opening the way to Jerusalem. Allenby did not allow the formation of a new line of defense by taking a hard line with the retreating Ottoman forces.

British land and naval artillery and aircraft relentless bombarded the Turkish troops. The Turkish forces, struggling with hunger and disease as well as the intense fire of the British, lost despite their heroism. The heroic soldiers fought with their bayonets fearlessly, making the enemy to pay a huge cost for the victory.

Falkenhayn believed that he could defend Jerusalem, but successive defeats weakened the resistance of the Ottoman commanders.