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Managing The Divine Jurisdiction: Sacred Space And The Limits Of Law On The Temple Mount (1917-1948), Robert W. Nicholson

History - Theses

This paper probes the history of the Temple Mount complex during the British Mandate for Palestine. Approaching this sacred space from three different perspectives--British, Arab, and Jewish--the paper examines how people and events surrounding the site contributed to the evolution of Palestine after World War I. Ultimately, I argue that Britain's non-policy on the Temple Mount undermined the Mandate project and ultimately contributed to the rise of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fearful of angering Muslims in Palestine and around the world, the British handed control of the space to an indigenous Arab-Muslim administration. This policy of "affirmative deference" allowed certain Muslim …