Britain Pledges a Zionist Homeland in Palestine
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 announcing British 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 statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community.
“Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty’s Government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet:
‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour”.
From the United Nations: “The pivotal role of the Balfour Declaration in virtually every phase of the Palestinian issue cannot be exaggerated. The Declaration, which determined the direction of subsequent developments in Palestine, was incorporated in the Mandate.
Its implementation brought Arab opposition and revolt.
It caused unending difficulties for the Mandatory in the last stages pitting British, Jews and Arabs against each other. It ultimately led to partition and to the problem as it exists today.
Any understanding of the Palestine issue, therefore, requires some examination of this Declaration which can be considered the root of the problem of Palestine.”
This was 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.
These words from the Declaration bear repeating: “it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.“
Two things are striking about the above sentence. The first is a clear intention that zionists must respect the civil and religious rights of Palestinians, an obligation that zionists immediately failed to honor. The second and perhaps more striking point is that the “non-Jewish communities” at that time were 97% of the population of Palestine, and yet they were identified solely by who they were not – they were not part of the 3% of the population who were Jewish – and not by who they were.
In 1939, the British Government would concede that the local population’s wishes and interests should have been taken into account. In 2017 the British Government acknowledged that the declaration should have explicitly called for the protection of the Palestinian Arabs’ political rights.
The Declaration also directly contradicted the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, which the Arabs understood to guarantee them Palestine as a homeland in exchange for joining the war against the Ottoman Empire.
Promising the Zionists a homeland in territory previously promised to the Arabs was a great betrayal by the British of the Arabs