The highly centralized rule of ʾAbduʾl Hamid II., while oppressive in many respects, was distinctly beneficial to the advance of Palestine, and during his reign the land increased in prosperity and population.
§ 7. Palestine under the British Mandate.
Capture of Palestine, 1917.—The circumstances attending the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war and the brilliant operations which led to the capture of Palestine from the Turks by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, under the command of General (now Field-Marshal Lord) Allenby, are too recent in the public memory to require detailed narration here. They are well recounted in the Record of the Advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, compiled by Lt.-Colonel H. Pirie-Gordon, Military Editor of the Palestine News, Cairo, 1919. General Allenby began his operations in October, 1917, and on the 31st of the month had taken Beersheba. Gaza fell on the 7th November, and on the 16th November Jaffa was occupied without opposition. These successes enabled a converging movement to be made on Jerusalem; and at noon of the 9th December a Turkish parlementaire conveyed the surrender of the city to the Commander-in-Chief, who made his official entry two days afterwards, walking into Jerusalem by the Jaffa Gate, followed by his staff and by representatives of the French and Italian contingents. The notable proclamation which, standing at the top of the Citadel steps, he caused to be read to the people in English, French, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew, ran as follows:
'To the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Blessed and the people dwelling in the vicinity. The defeat inflicted upon the Turks by the troops under my command has resulted in the occupation of your city by my forces. I therefore here and now proclaim it to be under martial law, under which form of administration it will remain so long as military considerations make it necessary. However, lest
