Day School: The British Mandate in Palestine

After the First World War, and following the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France in 1916, the territories of the former Ottoman Empire were defined with new boundaries.

Britain was granted Mandate Powers in 1919 by the League of Nations to administer Palestine with separate arrangements for Transjordan and Iraq. Meanwhile France was granted the Mandate for what became Syria and Lebanon.

Our event will look at how films have presented what happened in Palestine and Iraq in particular and how this has resulted in major periods of military action and civil unrest across the region ever since. This might be our most topical event in its exploration of the history of a ‘live’ situation.

Our key film will be Annemarie Jacir’s (Palestine-France-UK-US etc. 2025) which covers the so-called ‘Arab Revolt’ in Palestine from 1936 as seen from the Arab perspective. It combines melodrama, politics and action.

We will also explore (UK-Italy 2023) which deals with both the Jewish political and military organisations and the attempts by British security forces to maintain order in the late 1930s and leading into the 1940s.

These two films are important in countering the dominant Hollywood view of the same issues in films such as (US 1949), (US 1960), (UK-Israel-US 1966) and (US 1966) all of which present the 'birth of the state of Israel' from the perspective of the Jewish diaspora as well as the Jewish migrants of the 1930s.

We’ll also consider some of the newsreel and documentary footage of events both from the period and from retrospective material.

Tea and coffee will be available, for a small donation, and you are welcome to bring your own lunch.
Tickets are available online and on the door but due to limited places, please let us know if you are planning to buy your ticket on the door.

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