| dc.description.abstract | This thesis shows how the British imperial imaginary on Palestine, a common worldview on Palestine and its inhabitants, developed within the governing elite of the British Empire and informed British imperial policies for Palestine from 1917 until 1923. The British imperial imaginary included a clear sense of British superiority over everyone else in pre-Mandate years. Around 1917, stereotypical ideas about Palestine and its (Arab) population and a specific Biblical view of Jews, originating in the British cultural archive, also featured in the imperial imaginary. In this atmosphere, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, favoring the Zionists over the Arabs living in Palestine. From 1918 onwards, British ruling elites started to diverge over the apt British attitude towards the Arabs and Zionists. One segment of the elite gradually let go of the ideas in the cultural archive, and developed more pro-Arab sentiments, demanding a change of Britain’s Palestinian policies. Yet, the other, powerful elite faction preserved their pro-Zionist attitudes. Since this group contained Britain’s most important politicians of that time, imperial policies in Palestine were left unaltered. For all British elites however, despite their internal differences, the interests of the British Empire stood above all. In the early years of the Mandate for Palestine, the imperial imaginary retained its primary component: an unequivocal sense of British sublimity. This was the defining factor for all imperial policies made for Palestine between 1917 and 1923. | |
