In Palestine, the situation was more complicated because of the British promise in the form of the Balfour Declaration to support the creation of a Jewish national home. The massive increase in the population of European Jewish immigration, land purchases and settlement in Palestine created increasing resistance by Arab peasants, journalists and political figures living in Palestine. The Arabs feared that the massive influx of Jews would lead to the eventual creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The opposition from the Palestinian Arabs of the British Mandate was because of the fact that it thwarted their aspirations for self-rule, and they opposed massive Jewish immigration because it threatened their position in the country (Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict). The articles of the mandate included the requirement of establishing a Jewish national home. Until the establishment of the mandate, Palestine’s boundaries had not been defined because it was part of Greater Syria and was not a distinct political unit. With the imposition of the Palestine Mandate, the borders of Palestine were defined for the first time. It included land on both sides of the Jordan River encompassing the present-day countries of Israel and