m Weizmann, the leading proponent of the Zionist movement, and King Faysal of Syria, the foremost Arab leader at the time, were necessary. The two sides managed to reach an agreement in 1919, declaring that the Jews would work together with Arabs to develop Palestine economically, and, in return, would acknowledge the Balfour Declaration and permit Jewish immigration, assuming Palestinian Arab rights were protected and the demands for an independent Greater Syria were met. In 1920, at the San Remo Conference, Britain was awarded the mandate for Palestine. Throughout the period of Jewish immigration to Palestine, wealthy Zionist organizations purchased land for colonization from absentee Arab landowners. As Zionists grew in number and in power in Palestine, indigenous peasant Arabs felt threatened by the Zionists, ignored by the British, and exploited by their own upper classes.
             The first outbreak of large-scale violence between the Arabs and Zionists in Palestine occurred in 1929. The Wailing Wall of the Temple of Herod, a sacred site for both Muslims and Jews, was the subject of extended controversy. The wall was declared waqf and, as such, was under Muslim jurisdiction. Jews were allowed to visit the site, but they were prohibited from setting up accessories for prayer there. After one incident where British police were forced to remove Jewish worshippers setting up screens from the site, the Jewish community launched a series of protests. The Supreme Muslim Council responded by launching a campaign about the dangers Zionism posed to sacred Muslim sites. After a yearlong series of claims and counterclaims, violence broke out in two Jewish quarters of Jerusalem and the towns of Hebron and Safad. Eventually the British ended the fighting, but not until 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed.
             The British response to the Wailing Wall incidents was glaringly pro-Zionist. In 1929, the British sent a commission under Sir Walter Shaw to...