Balfour Declaration
Updated 2023-11-14
Balfour Declaration: Text of the Declaration https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration
The Balfour Declaration Project It is no exaggeration that the history of Israel/Palestine for the last hundred years has turned on the seminal Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Loved and loathed in equal measure, this was the letter that changed the future.
The following extract of the Balfour Declaration from the ‘Companion Guide’ to the Balfour Project film, ‘Britain in Palestine, 1917-1948’ highlights the pivotal event. Concise, but thoroughly documented, the article explains its origins, and why members of the War Cabinet were predominantly disposed to make a commitment to a ‘Jewish National Home in Palestine’, despite opposition from many Jews. What was the role of Chaim Weizmann? What were the lesser-known ‘safeguarding clauses’ of the declaration, and why were they included? How did the writers of the declaration view the Arab majority living in the land in question?
Here is one essential first step to comprehending the deep-seated strife between Israelis and Palestinians. https://balfourproject.org/the-balfour-declaration/
Balfour Declaration – Wikipedia The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9 November 1917.
Immediately following their declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, the British War Cabinet began to consider the future of Palestine; within two months a memorandum was circulated to the Cabinet by a Zionist Cabinet member, Herbert Samuel, proposing the support of Zionist ambitions in order to enlist the support of Jews in the wider war.
By late 1917, in the lead-up to the Balfour Declaration, the wider war had reached a stalemate, with two of Britain’s allies not fully engaged: the United States had yet to suffer a casualty, and the Russians were in the midst of a revolution with Bolsheviks taking over the government. A stalemate in southern Palestine was broken by the Battle of Beersheba on 31 October 1917. The release of the final declaration was authorized on 31 October; the preceding Cabinet discussion had referenced perceived propaganda benefits amongst the worldwide Jewish community for the Allied war effort.
The opening words of the declaration represented the first public expression of support for Zionism by a major political power. The term “national home” had no precedent in international law, and was intentionally vague as to whether a Jewish state was contemplated. The intended boundaries of Palestine were not specified, and the British government later confirmed that the words “in Palestine” meant that the Jewish national home was not intended to cover all of Palestine. The second half of the declaration was added to satisfy opponents of the policy, who had claimed that it would otherwise prejudice the position of the local population of Palestine and encourage antisemitism worldwide by “stamping the Jews as strangers in their native lands”. The declaration called for safeguarding the civil and religious rights for the Palestinian Arabs, who composed the vast majority of the local population, and also the rights and political status of the Jewish communities in other countries outside of Palestine. The British government acknowledged in 1939 that the local population’s wishes and interests should have been taken into account and recognized in 2017 that the declaration should have called for the protection of the Palestinian Arabs’ political rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
2023-10-16 The letter that led to the founding of Israel | Balfour: Seeds of Discord The Balfour Declaration opened the door to the founding of Israel, and its impact is still felt across the Middle East today.
In November 1917, Britain’s Balfour Declaration opened the door to the founding of Israel 30 years later. And it has had a major impact on the Middle East. The British government issued a public statement that contained a letter from Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community. He forwarded it to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. It began, “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and was the first public statement of support for Zionism by a major political power. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2023/10/16/the-letter-that-led-to-the-founding-of-israel-balfour-seeds-of-discord
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