THE TRUTH!!! THE TRUTH!!! THE TRUTH:
BEHOLD THE TRUE LOSS OF PALESTINE: TO BRITAIN, NOT JEWS, IN 1917, NOT 1948:
The British paid 17,000 British lives and in total 62,000 British casualties for the land of Ottoman Palestine, after the Ottoman Caliphate forced Britain to fight them by joining the German war against Britain, despite not being threatened at all by the European theatre:
[During the Sinai and Palestine campaign (1915–1918), British Empire forces suffered roughly 16,880 killed or missing, with a total of over 60,000 casualties (including around 43,712 wounded). This campaign, often known as the Battle for Palestine, involved brutal fighting across Gaza and Beersheba to control the region from the Ottoman Empire. Key Casualty Figures:
• Killed/Missing: 16,880 • Wounded: 43,712 • Captured: 1,385 • Total Casualties: ~61,977 • Key Battles: The two failed Battles of Gaza in 1917 resulted in heavy losses, with over 6,000 casualties in the second battle alone. • The Final Advance: Despite early setbacks, the British, under General Allenby, successfully took Jerusalem in December 1917.
These losses were part of a wider effort to defeat Ottoman forces in the Levant.]
Palestine and their Ottoman troops paid for their lives with the land of Ottoman Palestine, once they had lost, by surrendering this land, to keep the British army from pressing further.
It is unfair to undo this transaction, postmortem, because of what was paid for.
To the Arabian Muslims and the British Christians, the only precedents for this war between them were the Crusades, where The Holy Land, as the Christians called it, was the prize, the trophy, and the goal, each time: for the European Christians it was to seize this for Christianity (as the birthplace of Jesus), and for the Muslims the goal was to defend this spot from the Christians. For the British of the time, there can be doubt of their personal, unbiased intention, to seize and keep The Holy Land for the final time, for themselves, regardless of other consequences or outcomes of this war or considerations of other peoples, in what to them would’ve been the final, quiet, victorious, 5th Crusade, without putting this notion out into the world in any offensive wording, but which we can conclude proof of by their own internal national communication, of historic note, upon completion of the campaign:
[David Lloyd George famously declared the capture of Jerusalem by British forces in December 1917 as a “Christmas present for the British people”. Actual Quotes Regarding the “Gift”:
• “I want Jerusalem [captured] for Christmas… as a present to the British nation.” — David Lloyd George to General Edmund Allenby in June 1917, according to historical accounts of the campaign. • “Jerusalem was a Christmas present for the British nation.” — David Lloyd George’s sentiment expressed around the time of the Battle of Beersheba, November 1917. • “The last Crusade.” — Though Lloyd George was instructed not to use religious language, this term became associated with the victory and was used in the press to frame the 1917 Christmas announcement.
Newspaper & Historical Context (December 1917/1918)
• Newspaper Announcement Context: The British press celebrated the fall of Jerusalem (which officially happened on December 9, 1917, and was announced to the public just before Christmas) as a major victory, with many papers framing it as the “Last Crusade” to boost morale. • General Allenby’s Entrance: On December 11, 1917, General Allenby entered Jerusalem on foot through the Jaffa Gate, acting on the goal set by the Prime Minister.
The Jerusalem gift was specifically designed to boost British spirits during the grim winter of 1917–1918.]
Here is a great video documentary, only twenty-four minutes long, of the campaign. Look into the background of all the photographs: all photos show miles and miles and miles of empty scrub land, stretching to the horizon in all directions. This is how both sides were able to maneuver large armies across this area and do fighting without running into civilians. This land was mostly uninhabited at this time: