1929
August 6:Britain and Egypt reach agreement providing for the end of British military
occupation, but with British forces still stationed at key points along the Suez Canal.
Egypt would be admitted as an independent member of the League of Nations.
August 8:Arabs in Jerusalem riot against Jews as the result of a dispute over Jewish
access to the so-called “Wailing Wall.”
1930
June 30:Britain and Iraq sign a formal treaty promising eventual independence for
Iraq (in 1932).
October 20:Britain publishes the Passfield White Paper limiting Jewish immigration
to Palestine and imposing restrictions on land sales to Jews.
1932
September 22:Ibn Saud changes the name of his domain to the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia (from the Kingdom of Hijaz and Najd).
October 3:Iraq is admitted to the League of Nations, ending the British mandate.
1935
March 21:Reza Shah changes the name of Persia to Iran.
1936
January:Widespread rioting erupts in Syria following the French administration’s dis-
banding of the Nationalist Party. The French impose martial law.
April:An Arab revolt against British rule begins in Palestine; it will continue, inter-
mittently, for nearly three years and result in hundreds of deaths, most of them of
Arabs.
September 6:France and Syria sign a treaty of friendship intended to lead to Syrian
independence within three years.
November 13:France and Lebanon sign an agreement asserting that Lebanon will
remain independent of Syria.
1937
May 26–27:Egypt is admitted to the League of Nations.
July 7:The Palestine Royal Commission (also known as the Peel Commission) rec-
ommends to the British government that Palestine be partitioned into Arab and
Jewish sectors.
1938
November 9:The Woodhead Commission reports that the partitioning of Palestine
would be impractical. As a result, the British government will abandon partition as
a policy.
1939
May 17:The British government issues a white paper calling for an independent Pales-
tinian state within ten years and imposing limits on Jewish immigration to Pales-
tine. Parliament will approve this policy on May 23.
656 CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 1914–2007