Page "History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict" Paragraph 11

As a result of a mutual defense treaty that the Ottoman Empire made with Germany, during World War I the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers and therefore the Ottoman Empire was now embroiled in a conflict with Great Britain and France.

The possibility of releasing Palestine from the control of the Ottoman Empire led the Jewish population and the Arab population in Palestine to support the alignment of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia during World War I.

In 1915, the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence was formed as an agreement with Arab leaders to grant sovereignty to Arab lands under Ottoman control to form an Arab state in exchange for the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans.

However, the Balfour Declaration in 1917 proposed to " favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, but that nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

" In 1916, the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement allocated to the British Empire the area of present day Jordan, the area of present day Israel and the West Bank, and the area of present day Iraq.

The Balfour Declaration was seen by Jewish nationalists as the cornerstone of a future Jewish homeland on both sides of the Jordan River, but increased the concerns of the Arab population in the Palestine region.