Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking to establish a French presence in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, laid siege to the walled city of Acre in 1799. He advertised Palestine as a homeland to the Jews under French protection, calling on them to 'rise up' against their 'oppressors.' While his assault failed, Napoleon's project for a Jewish homeland in the region under a colonial protectorate would go on to be revived by the British 40 years later.

A national strike by Palestinians to protest mass Jewish immigration was met with violence by British authorities. Despite the British killing over 190 Palestinians and wounding more than 800 between April and October 1936, it was pressure from Arab heads of state that convinced Palestinian leaders to end the strike and join an inquiry headed by Lord Peel. In 1937 the Peel Commission recommended partition of Palestine: one-third for a Jewish state and two-thirds for an Arab state to be merged with Transjordan. A corridor from Jerusalem to Jaffa would remain under British mandate. The Commission also recommended relocating Palestinians where necessary.

In late 1947 the United Nations devised a new plan for the partition of Palestine. Resolution 181 divided Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem as an internationalised city. The Jewish state was granted 56 percent of the land; the city of Jaffa was included as an enclave of the Arab state; and the land known today as the Gaza Strip was split from its surrounding agricultural regions. Many Palestinians viewed the proposed Arab state as impractical. When the draft resolution was presented for voting, Arab newspapers 'named and shamed' the countries that voted for it, and Arab protesters took to the streets. Following the resolution's passage, Britain announced it would end its mandate in Palestine.

In early 1948, Jewish paramilitary forces began to seize more land in Palestine. By the end of July, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been forced to flee their homes, and their plight as refugees had just begun.