Historiography and Approaches to the British Mandate in Palestine: new questions and frameworks

On the centennial of British administration in Palestine, reflections on the subsequent military and then civil government should be linked with the prevailing reality that the geographical territory and the population of the region continue to live with the remnants of the Palestine Mandate (1922–1948). This special issue of Contemporary Levant, co-edited by Lauren Banko, Roberto Mazza, and Steven Wagner, neither sees the Mandate as a structure long-gone from the landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean, nor as simply a matter for historiographical debate; rather, as we mark the anniversary year that began British rule in Palestine (under Occupied Enemy Territory Administration South, or the military administration, in 1918), it is essential to underscore the forthcoming discussion of this history with the caveat that the framework of the Mandate endures. It is not, as noted by Jacob Norris elsewhere in this issue, a closed chapter. The Mandate itself and its consequences have permeated legislative, juridical, social, economic, religious, and political structures in Palestine (as in Israel, albeit in different ways). The same is true for many other post-colonial or post-imperial contexts, and as such Palestine should be considered within post-colonial frameworks.