Palestine Royal Commission

The Peel Commission was dispatched to Mandatory Palestine in November 1936 amidst the "Great Arab Revolt"—a violent uprising against British rule and increasing Jewish immigration. The commission's mandate was to investigate the "underlying causes" of the unrest and determine if the British were fulfilling their dual, and often contradictory, obligations to both the Arab and Jewish populations.

Upon arrival, the commissioners found a country paralyzed by a general strike and sectarian violence. After months of hearing testimony from leaders like Chaim Weizmann and eventually the Mufti of Jerusalem, the 400-page report published in July 1937 offered a radical conclusion: the Mandate had failed. It famously stated, "An irrepressible conflict has arisen between two national communities within the narrow bounds of one small country... There is no common ground between them."

The report argued that the Jews had successfully built a "state within a state," with its own language, schools, and economy, while the Arabs remained steadfast in their desire for national independence and their fear of being displaced. Consequently, the commission recommended Partition. Under the plan, a Jewish state would be created in the Galilee and the coastal plain (about 20% of the land), while the rest—including the West Bank and the Negev—would be merged with Transjordan to form an Arab state. A "Permanent Mandate" corridor would remain under British control to protect the Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The Peel Report was a political earthquake. While the British government initially accepted the findings, the plan was ultimately rejected by the Arab leadership, who refused to cede any territory. The Jewish leadership was deeply divided; David Ben-Gurion favoured the principle of statehood even on a small portion of land, while others viewed the borders as indefensible. By 1938, faced with the prospect of a massive Arab uprising and the shadow of World War II, the British government abandoned the partition plan in favour of the 1939 White Paper, which severely restricted Jewish immigration.