The 6th Airborne Division in Palestine was initially posted to the region as the Imperial Strategic Reserve. It was envisioned as a mobile peace keeping force, positioned to be able to respond quickly to any area of the British Empire. In fact it became involved in an internal security role between 1945 and 1948. Palestine had been a British Mandate since the end of the First World War. Under the terms of the mandate, Great Britain was responsible for the government and security of the country. It had long been a stated British aim to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine and between 1922 and 1939 over 250,000 Jewish immigrants had arrived in the country. However Arab resistance and the Second World War prompted the British to curtail immigration. The time also saw the rise of the Jewish Resistance Movement, which eventually came into conflict with the British authorities. When the 6th Airborne Division arrived in response to increasing terrorist activity, it became involved in internal security, being responsible for cordons and search operations, guarding convoys and key installations. As the situation worsened, the men of the division had to patrol the towns and cities, enforce curfews and deal with rioting by the civilian population. They also protected Jewish and Arab settlements from sectarian violence. This was not without loss to the division and several members were killed and wounded during this time. The end of the British mandate coincided with the post war reduction of the British Army back to peace time levels, and the division's numbers were gradually reduced. By the end of their tenure in Palestine, the division's strength was reduced in real terms, to less than brigade size. In 1948 it was disbanded soon after its withdrawal from Palestine.

A view of Jerusalem in the early 20th century. The earliest verified reference to the city is in the Amarna letters, which date to the 14th century BCE. Over its long history, it has been controlled by Israelites, Judaeans, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mamluks, Turks, and the British before being split between Israel and Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967, and the city remains a core issue in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

• ...that the Mecelle, the Ottoman civil code of 1877, was the first attempt to codify part of the laws of an Islamic state?
• ...that the Declaration to the Seven was the first British pronouncement to the Arab states of the former Ottoman Empire advancing the principle of national self-determination?
• ...that Muristan, a complex in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem (pictured), was the location of the first hospital of the Knights of St. John?

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