A REPORT BY GLUBB PASHA OF 13 JULY 1946 - THE BRITISH AND THE TRANSJORDANIAN VIEW OF THE DIVISION OF PALESTINE (Raport Glubba Paszy z 13 lipca 1946 r. - brytyjskie i transjordanskie spojrzenie na problem podzialu Palestyny)
In the past several years the British have rendered accessible a number of essential documents, or their fragments, concerning events in the Middle East during the 1940s and 1950s. The author of this article examined pertinent sources at the Public Record Office in London, and while studying the question of British-Jordanian relations he came across an interesting report dispatched by the commander-in-chief of the Jordanian armed forces. This was the British officer John Bagot Glubb, whose role exceeded that of head of the Arab Legion, and whom British generals regarded as an important expert on the Middle East. The report, dated 13 July 1946, proved to a holistic plan for solving the Palestinian question by introducing a division into an Arab and a Jewish state. The presented article analyses and presents the historical background of the plan. Already in the 1930s British undertakings resulted in an irresolvable conflict involving the Arabs and the Jews. After a brief interval at the time of the Second World War the Jewish conflict erupted once again. These were conditions in which J. B. Glubb proposed his plan. The author of the document suggested a division of Palestine unfavourable for the Jewish side. The Jewish state was to encompass the Coastal Plain to the north of Tel Aviv and a major part of Galilee. Almost the whole remaining part of Palestine was to be linked with Transjordan into a single Arab state ruled by Abdullah I. J. B. Glubb explained that such a solution would make it possible to retain British domination in the region. The description was supplemented with a schematic hand drawn map of the division. J. B. Glubb demanded that the British authorities initiate rapid steps. More important, the report remains hostile towards the Zionist movement and the USA policy. Its author requested that the British carry out the division without negotiating the issue with the Americans. The titular document demonstrates the attitude of the British officer caste immediately after World War II, and its conviction about the omnipotence of the British Empire in the Middle East. This is precisely the reason why the report comprises an interesting source for becoming familiar with the history of the Middle East and British policy in this region.
Financed by the National Centre for Research and Development under grant No. SP/I/1/77065/10 by the strategic scientific research and experimental development program:
SYNAT - “Interdisciplinary System for Interactive Scientific and Scientific-Technical Information”.