Arab-Israeli Relations, 1917-1970 includes a wide range of original source materials — letters, minutes, reports, and maps — from the 1917 Balfour Declaration through to the Black September war of 1970-1. These documents, housed in the National Archive, London, are from the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, War Office and Cabinet Papers. Major policy statements and minor documents reveal the workings of colonial administration and, following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, British diplomacy towards Israel and the Arab states.

Topics covered include:

• Background to the establishment of the State of Israel as a Jewish national home
• Black September
• Border wars of the 1950s
• British capture of Jerusalem
• Cold War in the Middle East
• Formation of the United Arab Republic
• Jewish terror groups
• Milestones in the Palestine-Zionist tension and their impact on British policy leading to the Partition of 1948