The British and French Takeover

Faisal bin al-Hussein respected the power of the British, and in January 1919 he signed an agreement with them, accepting Jewish migration into Palestine on condition that the Arabs receive the independence promised them and that the rights of Arab peasants and tenant farmers in Palestine be protected. The British were for the agreement, but what they meant exactly by independence and when the Arabs were to get that independence were perhaps not clear to Faisal.

Faisal attended the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919, representing the interests of Arabs. The Allies, wanting to carry through on their decision to divide the Middle East among them, resorted to a rationale: that the Arabs, just freed from Ottoman domination, were not yet ready for self-government. The Allies believed that the Arabs were in need of their tutoring. President Wilson accepted this and was appeased by the claim that eventually the Arabs would gain their independence.