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Many modern Zionists claim that early Zionists never intended to take over Palestine or displace its native population. While extensive evidence from leaders like Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion refutes this, the clearest proof lies in the early British and American investigative commissions. These official reports offer an unvarnished look at the true objectives of the Zionist movement, the root causes of Arab grievances, and the warnings of inevitable catastrophe.

The three primary sources examined here are the King-Crane Commission (1919), the Palin Commission (1920), and the Haycraft Commission (1921).

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1. Early Zionist leadership actively pressured the British to help them secure the entirety of Palestine, holding nothing back in their official testimonies. As preserved in the Palin Commission Report (1920), Dr. David Eder, the head of the Zionist Commission in Palestine, stated unequivocally:

>"Dr. Eder, the political officer attached to the mission himself declares that what is contemplated eventually is “a Jewish National State under Great Britain”.

The report explicitly noted that the Zionist Commission “will not coat the pill, but insists on the Promised Land being given to them.”

Dr. David Eder again in the Haycraft Commission (1921):

>Eder was ‘unaggressive in manner and free from any desire to push forward opinions which might be offensive to Arabs’, yet he stated his belief that there could only be ‘one National Home in Palestine, and that a Jewish one, and no equality in the partnership between Jews and Arabs, but a Jewish predominance as soon as the numbers of that race are sufficiently increased’. The Commissioners presumed that Dr. Eder was expressing the ‘official Zionist creed’ because he was the ‘acting Chairman of the Zionist Commission’. He went on to claim that ‘the Jews should, and the Arabs should not, have the right to bear arms’ and that the Zionist Commission should have a say in the appointment of the High Commissioner.

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2. The British administration facilitated this ultimate goal through its governance of Palestine. They permitted the Zionist Commission to operate as a "hyper-government", effectively an autonomous, parallel state. The Zionists were granted independent control over Jewish immigration, their own schools, their own banks, and even their own armed guards, allowing them to run an exclusive economy and administration right under the noses of the native inhabitants.

An ironic fact highlighted in the Palin Commission Report, which strongly echoes modern dynamics, is that despite this massive colonial backing, the Zionist Commission continuously claimed that they were the ones facing injustice.

The Palin Report explicitly diagnosed the psychological and political reason for this entitlement. The Zionists viewed the indigenous Arab population as fundamentally inferior, and therefore felt any acknowledgment of Arab rights by the British was an act of injustice against Jews.

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3. All three commissions concluded with an explicit, haunting warning: the trajectory of Zionist activities and their unyielding ambition to establish an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine would inevitably lead to catastrophe.

The American King-Crane Commission (1919) explicitly warned U.S. President Woodrow Wilson that forcing a Zionist state onto Palestine would be a disastrous violation of national self-determination. They wrote that:

>"...a national home for the Jewish people is not equivalent to making Palestine into a Jewish State; nor can the erection of such a Jewish State be accomplished without the gravest trespass upon the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities."

They concluded that such a project could only be implemented by sheer force of arms.

What these commissions warned about in 1919, 1920, and 1921, that an exclusive ethno-state could only be built through the violent, structural erasure of the Palestinians, is precisely the tragic reality that has unfolded across the decades.

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Because it is impossible to document every single detail in a single post, I highly recommend reading the full Palin Commission Report (1920).

It is an incredibly detailed, primary historical document that paints a vivid, easy-to-understand picture of the complex dynamics between the Palestinian Arabs, the Zionist Commission, and the British administration during those critical early months.

>As you’ve probably noticed, I decided to represent myself in this trial. Not because my barrister was doing a bad job or anything – we’ve actually become close friends – and I’m constantly telling the others I have the best barrister. I am so grateful for everything she has done for me, in this trial and the last. But this time I wanted to be able to speak to you myself. 

>During this trial you’ve heard some very important evidence. You’ve heard that there are factories on British soil making weapons to send to Israel. You’ve heard that the drones they make include Thor VTOL Quadcopters used to drop grenades, drones that are advertised as ‘battle tested’ on Palestinians. You’ve heard that drones use AI to target children, and that Magni X surveillance drones work in tandem with ‘killer drones’, and that Research & Development carried out in the UK is vital to the Israeli military. You’ve also heard that the Filton site was opened by the Israeli Ambassador, that it has export licences to Israel, that Elbit itself is the ‘backbone’ of the Israeli military.

>You heard how we tried every democratic means available to us, including demonstrations, fundraisers, encampments, petitions, writing to MPs, stickers leading to Amnesty International information about the apartheid, vigils, arms factory pickets, the list goes on. And how none of it worked. You heard how direct action is effective, how it ended apartheid during the civil rights movement in America, how it is being used in the UK today to shut down weapons factories, 4 of which have been closed permanently.

>You’ve heard that after we destroyed these drones we were arrested for terrorism – were held incommunicado – spent 18 months in prison without trial. You’ve heard that this is a retrial.

>After hearing the 6 of us give evidence you might think it odd that what’s happening in Palestine has gone completely unmentioned, you might have noticed certain words that have been blacklisted, that until our closing speeches the word genocide wasn’t said once. There have been interruptions from the prosecution, quick subject changes from our barristers – it’s almost as if whole topics of conversation have been banned. The prosecution know full well that we are right that this factory is supplying weapons to Israel to be used in Gaza. That is why they are choosing to suppress it rather than contest it. The prosecution have decided that the legality of Israel’s actions is irrelevant in this trial. Because they know you could not in good conscience find us guilty of anything if you were allowed to hear the whole truth. 

I really recommend this movie for anyone interested in the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt. It’s a crucial watch because it shows that the events of 1948 didn't happen in a vacuum, they were the direct result of British imperial policy a decade earlier.

The movie focuses on how the British paved the road for the Zionist state. It highlights how the British saw the European Jewish settlers as a useful tool to secure their own interests, specifically to protect the Suez Canal and the oil pipelines ending in Haifa. By backing the settlers, the British ensured they had a loyal, European-aligned population to help them maintain control over the Middle East.

The film covers the Peel Commission, which followed the Palestinian general strikes against the British preference for European settlers over the native population. The Commission concluded with a proposal to partition the land, which would have meant the forced "transfer" (ethnic cleansing) of more than 225,000 Palestinians to give the land to European Jews. This was the moment Palestinians fully realized the British intention was to replace them.

The British faced the uprising with brutal force. It is documented that 10% of Palestinian adult males were either killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled. This targeted the most significant Palestinian leaders, creating a political void and leaving the native population "leaderless" and unable to oppose the plan of stealing their land.

While the British were disarming Palestinians, they were actively equipping the European Jewish settlers with military support. They formed the Special Night Squads, led by British officer Orde Wingate (the "father of the IDF"), to train settlers in modern warfare.

Future Israeli leaders like Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon learned night raids, intelligence gathering, and mobile warfare directly from the British Army.

The British authorized and armed thousands of these settlers as "auxiliary police," allowing the Haganah (the settler militia) to expand and train under British protection.

While the Peel Commission wasn’t fully realized in 1937 due to Palestinian resistance, the British succeeded in their main goal: they broke the back of the Palestinian movement. When the Nakba happened in 1947-48, it wasn't a fair fight. It was a structurally centralized, British-trained army of European settlers against a native resistance whose leaders had already been killed or exiled by the British years prior.

Palestine 36 is a powerful reminder that the colonization of Palestine was a calculated, violent process led by the British Empire to ensure their own regional power at the expense of the native people.