PALESTINE 



5938 



PALESTINE 



sugar-cane : (b) various village in- 

 d ust ries, such as h and - milli ng, wine- 

 making, weaving, dyeing, tanning, 

 pottery making, and other handi- 

 crafts the absence of coal or iron 

 makes extensive factories almost 

 impossible; (c) camel, oxen, and 

 sheep rearing. The water power 

 of the Jordan is not yet harnessed. 



Up to the 19th century the sole 

 education in Palestine was priestly 

 (for the Moslem ulema, and for the 

 Christian priests). At the begin- 

 ning of the 20th century the 

 government Moslem schools were 

 by far the most numerous, but the 

 number of their pupils was not 

 greatly in excess of those in the 

 various Christian schools, and the 

 education they imparted was much 

 inferior. The Jews, in proportion to 

 their numbers, were well provided 

 with schools of their own, and were 

 steadily improving the quality of 

 the instruction given. The higher 

 education of the country was al- 

 most wholly concentrated in Bei- 

 rut, where the leading institutions 

 were the American (Protestant) 

 College, and the (Jesuit) Univer- 

 sity of S. Joseph. 



The present administration by 

 Britain, under a mandate granted 

 by the League of Nations, is exer- 

 cised by a high commissioner and 

 commander-in-chief ^the first to 



hold that double office being Sir 

 Herbert Samuel, appointed 1920). 

 A new constitution was announced 

 in Sept., 1922, by which the former 

 Advisory Council was replaced by 

 a Legislative Council. In the same 

 year Britain's mandate for Pales- 

 tine was passed by the League of Na- 

 tions. See Acre ; Millstone ; Trans- 



jordania, N.V. Basil Mathews 



Bibliography. Palestine in Geo- 

 graphy and History, A. W. Cooke, 

 1901 ; Early History of Syria and 

 Palestine, L. B. Paton, 1902 : 

 Village Life in Palestine, G. R. 

 Lees, 1905 ; Historical Geography 

 of the Holy Land, G. A. Smith, 

 new ed. 1917 ; Palestine : the Re- 

 birth of an Ancient People, A. M. 

 Hyamson, 1917 ; Palestine and the 

 Jews, Past, Present, and Future, 

 N. Bentwich, 1919; Peace Hand- 

 books, No. 60, Syria and Palestine, 

 pub. H.M. Stationery Office, 1920. 



Palestine. City of Texas, 

 U.S.A., the co. seat of Anderson 

 co. It is 160 m. by rly. N. of 

 Houston, on the International and 

 Great Northern Rly. Its industries 

 include the manufacture of cotton, 

 lumber products, iron, and cotton- 

 seed oil. Salt and iron are worked 

 in the neighbourhood, and a trade 

 in fruit and vegetables is carried 

 on. Palestine was settled in 1846, 

 incorporated in 1870, and became 

 a city in 1875. Pop. 11,000. 



PALESTINE: THE BRITISH CONQUEST 



Robert Machray, Writer on Foreign Affairs 



In addition to this general sketch, articles are given on the battles of 

 the campaign, and the generals who directed them, e.g. Gaza ; Jeru- 

 salem ; Shechem; Allenby ; Chetwode ; Murray 



One of the chief pre-occupations 

 of Great Britain with respect to the 

 eastern side of the Great War, 

 after Turkey became a belligerent, 

 was the safeguarding of the Suez 

 Canal. Early in Feb., 1915, a 

 Turkish attack on the canal was 

 defeated by the British, and in 

 March a second assault failed. On 

 the retirement of Sir John Max- 

 well, Sir Archibald Murray was 

 made commander-in-chief of the 

 Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 

 and at his suggestion the British 

 Government approved of a plan 

 for safeguarding the canal further 

 by driving the Turks out of the 

 Sinaitic Peninsula, which belonged 

 to Egypt. 



With tliis object the Royal 

 Engineers began building a rly. 

 from the canal eastward towards 

 Palestine. No fighting took place 

 until April, 1916, when the rly. 

 was approaching Katia. Taking 

 advantage of the scattered dis- 

 position of the British troops, the 

 Turks suddenly attacked at Katia 

 (q.v.), and inflicted a reverse on the 

 British, but at much greater cost 

 to themselves. Towards the end of 



July the Turks, who had a base at 

 El Arish, made an effort to check 

 the progress of the rly., but were 

 thoroughly beaten early in Aug. 

 at Romani (q.v.). In Dec. Murray 

 occupied El Arish, which the Turks 

 had evacuated on his approach, 

 part of them withdrawing to Rafa 

 and part to Magdhaba (q.v.). 



Attacks on Gaza 



Moving on to Rafa, on the Pales- 

 tine frontier, the British again 

 heavily defeated the Turks on 

 Jan. 9, 1917, and drove them com- 

 pletely out of the N. part of Sinai. 

 Advancing into the Holy Land, 

 they entered Khan Yunus on Feb. 

 28", and marched on towards Gaza 

 (Ghuzze). The rly. had been pushed 

 across the desert to within a short 

 distance of the frontier. Having 

 successfully crossed the Ghuzze, 

 the wadi anciently known as the 

 river of Gaza and 2 or 3 m. from 

 Gaza itself, the British attacked 

 the town on March 26, but failed 

 ta take it, and on March 28 they 

 fell back to the wadi. A second 

 attempt to capture it on April 19 

 also failed ; consequently changes 

 were made in the commands, and 



General Allenby replaced Murray. 

 After several months of intensive 

 preparation, Allenby renewed the 

 British offensive. Meanwhile the 

 Turks had made their front, 

 which stretched from Gaza E. to 

 Beersheba, exceedingly strong. On 

 Oct. 27 Allenby began by bom- 

 barding Gaza by land and sea, but 

 his real attack was on Beersheba, 

 at the extreme E. end of the 

 enemy's line, which was captured 

 on Oct. 31. Having crushed in the 

 Turkish left, he proceeded to roll 

 up the front from that side. Then, 

 heavily defeating the enemy at 

 Sheria, he moved W. on Gaza, 

 which fell on Nov. 7. Pushing N. 

 without delay, he took Huj and 

 Jemmameh, and occupied Ascalon, 

 Ashdod, and Gath. On Nov. 13 he 

 won a considerable victory at El 

 Mughar (q.v.), and next day held 

 the junction station of the Central 

 Palestine and Jerusalem rlys. 



Allenby had determined on the 

 capture of Jerusalem, but first 

 made his left secure by driving the 

 Turks up from the coastal plain 

 and by taking Jaffa (Joppa) on 

 Nov. 17. Advancing from Ram- 

 leh, occupied by him on Nov. 15, 

 he marched through the Judean 

 hills towards Jerusalem ; but after 

 heavy fighting, which brought him 

 in sight of his objective, he was 

 held up on Nov. 23-24. Mean- 

 while the rly. was being carried 

 towards Jerusalem with the ut- 

 most rapidity, and his engineers 

 besides made the roads that were 

 required among the hills. 

 Surrender of Jerusalem 



Allen by's right flank moved for- 

 ward and occupied Hebron on 

 Dec. 6. In spite of most un- 

 favourable weather, his troops on 

 Dec. 8 were by nightfall only 

 1 m. from Jerusalem on the W. 

 Next morning he found that the 

 Turks had evacuated the Holy 

 City, and about noon the mayor 

 appeared bearing a letter from the 

 enemy formally surrendering it. 

 On Dec. 1 1 Allenby made his official 

 entry into Jerusalem. 



The Turks were no more than 

 4 m. away on the N. and E., and 

 Allenby's first business, after ar- 

 ranging for the government of the 

 city, was to drive them farther 

 back and to consolidate his whole 

 line, now about 50 m. long, to the 

 sea. He began by forcing the Nahr 

 el Auja on his extreme left on Dec. 

 20-21, and began a forward move- 

 ment immediately N. of Jerusalem, 

 but was checked by the discovery 

 that the Turks were undertaking 

 an offensive with the object of re- 

 taking the city. For two days the 

 enemy attacked with great reso- 

 lution, but, after some slight suc- 

 cesses, he was beaten back, and on 



