The first modern geopolitical entity in this area was the British Mandate for Palestine. The Mandate was created by the League of Nations in 1920, following the defeat of Turkey and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The Mandate was granted to Britain for the purpose of “establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.”
The area of the Mandate was 118,000 square kilometers or 45,000 square miles.
In 1921, Britain separated 91,000 square kilometers of the Mandate from Palestine and created Jordan. The British did not allow Jews to live in Jordan.
In 1923, Britain ceded the Golan Heights (1,176 square kilometers) to the French Mandate of Syria. Jews were also barred from living in these areas. Jewish settlers on the Golan abandoned their homes and relocated inside the reduced area of the British Mandate.
The total remaining area of the Mandate of Palestine, after these land deductions was 27,000 square kilometers (a little over 10,000 square miles). The southern part of the Mandate – the desert of the Negev – was closed by the British to Jewish settlement. The area was inhabited by 15,000 roaming Bedouins, and had no Jewish or Arab settlements in it.
The rest of the Mandate, the inhabited part of Palestine was 14,000 square kilometers. On the eve of the creation of the State of Israel 1.8 million people lived this area: 600,000 Jews and 1.2 million Arabs. Following the war between the Jews and the Arabs in 1948, the inhabited areas of Mandatory Palestine were divided between Israel and Jordan. 8,000 square kilometers, or 57% of the area, became Israel. The rest, 5,700 square kilometers, was annexed by Jordan – and renamed the West Bank, and 360 square kilometers were occupied by Egypt and called the Gaza Strip.
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