The Balfour Declaration was seen as the main spark that ignited the fire of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba that saw the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. [11][iv][v] Romantic nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe had helped to set off the Haskalah, or "Jewish Enlightenment", creating a split in the Jewish community between those who saw Judaism as their religion and those who saw it as their ethnicity or nation. [103] The Russian forces were known to be distracted by the ongoing Russian Revolution and the growing support for the Bolshevik faction, but Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government had remained in the war; Russia only withdrew after the final stage of the revolution on 7 November 1917. The Sykes–Picot Agreement made no reference to the Sherif of Mecca, and, so far as our five documents are concerned, he has never been heard of since. [185][186] The agreement was never implemented. "[317][318], Following the 1936 general strike that was to degenerate into the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the most significant outbreak of violence since the Mandate began, a British Royal Commission – a high-profile public inquiry – was appointed to investigate the causes of the unrest. Although the United States had just entered the war on the Allied side, a sizable infusion of American troops was not scheduled to arrive on the continent until the following year. [77] Hogarth reported that Hussein "would not accept an independent Jewish State in Palestine, nor was I instructed to warn him that such a state was contemplated by Great Britain". [o] The previous British correspondence with "the Arabs" was discussed at the meeting; Sokolow's notes record Sykes' description that "The Arabs professed that language must be the measure [by which control of Palestine should be determined] and [by that measure] could claim all Syria and Palestine. ", Norman Rose noted: "... for the British the Balfour Declaration inaugurated one of the most controversial episodes in their imperial history. 9 Interview by Ambassador Daniel Taub, “Lord Rothschild discusses cousin’s crucial role in ‘miracle’ Balfour Declaration,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2017, http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/rothschild/. It is unlikely that Balfour was 'converted' to Zionism by this encounter despite this view being propounded by Weizmann and endorsed by Balfour's biographer. It simply was open to the idea of Jews moving to Palestine, buying land without use of force and then making a state out of that land. The Jews would have to bring sacrifices and he was prepared to do so. Balfour Declaration Balfour Declaration, declaration issued on November 2, 1917 by Great Britain in favour of a Jewish national home in Palestine. This page was last edited on 8 December 2022, at 08:40. [11][12] The 1881–1884 anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire encouraged the growth of the latter identity, resulting in the formation of the Hovevei Zion pioneer organizations, the publication of Leon Pinsker's Autoemancipation, and the first major wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine – retrospectively named the "First Aliyah". When the State of Israel was born in 1948, it was invaded by a coalition of Arab armies which received their training and weapons from the main colonial powers in the Middle East at that time: Britain and France. [305][306] The vote proved to be only symbolic as it was subsequently overruled by a vote in the House of Commons following a tactical pivot and variety of promises made by Churchill.[305][xxx]. At this time, there were very strong pro-Zionist feelings by many of the political elite and establishment. The Balfour Declaration allowed for the establishment of a new Jewish national homeland called Israel and the striping of land from the native Palestinians. Don't think in terms of national rights, think in terms of . "[168] Yair Auron opines that Cecil, then a deputy Foreign Secretary representing the British Government at a celebratory gathering of the English Zionist Federation, "possibly went beyond his official brief" in saying (he cites Stein) "Our wish is that Arabian countries shall be for the Arabs, Armenia for the Armenians and Judaea for the Jews".[171]. The Jews I meet are quite different." * Ambassador Dore Gold is the Guest Editor of this special issue of the Jewish Political Studies Review. The Balfour Declaration of 1926, issued by the 1926 Imperial Conference of British Empire leaders in London, was named after Arthur Balfour, who was Lord President of the Council. ... To this he said: "If that is so you will one day be a force." Himmler wrote, The National Socialist Party has inscribed on its flag ‘the extermination of world Jewry.’ Our party sympathizes with the fight of the Arabs, especially the Arabs of Palestine, against the foreign Jew. [xx] In the United States the press began using the terms "Jewish National Home", "Jewish State", "Jewish republic" and "Jewish Commonwealth" interchangeably. Early British political support for an increased Jewish presence in the region of Palestine was based upon geopolitical calculations. [x], In July 1914 war broke out in Europe between the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and, later that year, the Ottoman Empire). Description The tendency to justify Zionism on the basis of the Holocaust is totally misconceived. [137], The decision to release the declaration was taken by the British War Cabinet on 31 October 1917. All envisaged, in the fullness of time, the emergence of a Jewish state. At the 100th anniversary of this milestone event in Jewish and Zionist history, a panel of scholars of British, Middle East and Jewish history and politics will explore the Balfour Declaration's origins and its significance for today. In his posthumously published 1981 book The Anglo-American Establishment, Georgetown University history professor Carroll Quigley explained his view that Lord Milner was the primary author of the declaration,[xviii] and more recently, William D. Rubinstein, Professor of Modern History at Aberystwyth University, Wales, proposed Amery instead. 7 Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949), 252. The Balfour Declaration, the pivotal, 67-word assurance by the British foreign secretary that promised support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,". Excerpts from the minutes of these four War Cabinet meetings provide a description of the primary factors that the ministers considered: Declassification of British government archives has allowed scholars to piece together the choreography of the drafting of the declaration; in his widely cited 1961 book, Leonard Stein published four previous drafts of the declaration. ", This statement was first made during a debate regarding the upcoming, Weizmann explained as follows: "The German government, on the other hand, was deeply distressed that the British government should get the better of it. I believe this letter is part of the false claims made by Chaim Weizmann and Lawrence to lead astray public opinion. On the Eastern Front, the fate of one ally, Russia, was uncertain: The Russian Revolution in March had toppled Czar Nicholas II, and the Russian government was struggling against widespread opposition to the country’s disintegrating war effort against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Jewish claim to the Holy Land is based on facts, and we may understand from Chaim Weizmann’s language and choice of words when he explained that it was a major historical event. [ak] The results of the ongoing American King–Crane Commission of Enquiry consultation of the local population – from which the British had withdrawn – were suppressed for three years until the report was leaked in 1922. Gelvin noted that "The British did not know quite what to make of President Woodrow Wilson and his conviction (before America's entrance into the war) that the way to end hostilities was for both sides to accept "peace without victory." ArcelorMittal SA. Balfour. The Committee of the Jewish Communities (in Italian: Weizmann wrote that: "it appears desirable from every point of view that the British Government should give expression to its sympathy and support of the Zionist claims on Palestine. [aj] In an August 1919 memo Balfour acknowledged the inconsistency among these statements, and further explained that the British had no intention of consulting the existing population of Palestine. It spurred an impressive growth in organized membership: from 7,500 in 200 Zionist societies in 1914 to 30,000 in 600 societies in 1918. 8 Sir Isaiah Berlin, “The Biographical Facts,” in Meyer W. Weisgal and Joel Carmichael, eds. [266], The declaration was first endorsed by a foreign government on 27 December 1917, when Serbian Zionist leader and diplomat David Albala announced the support of Serbia's government in exile during a mission to the United States. "[88], In terms of British politics, the declaration resulted from the coming into power of Lloyd George and his Cabinet, which had replaced the H. H. Asquith led-Cabinet in December 1916. The clause had been drafted together with the second safeguard by Leo Amery in consultation with Lord Milner, with the intention to "go a reasonable distance to meeting the objectors, both Jewish and pro-Arab, without impairing the substance of the proposed declaration". Palestine is a small region of land that has played a prominent role in the ancient and modern history of the Middle East. The establishment of a Zionist state there—under British protection—would accomplish this goal, while also following the Allied aim of self-determination for smaller nations. Ironically, the rise of Israel was an anti-colonial development accelerating the demise of European colonial empires and the rise of independent states. The influence of the Balfour Declaration on the course of post-war events was immediate: According to the “mandate” system created by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, Britain was entrusted with the temporary administration of Palestine, with the understanding that it would work on behalf of both its Jewish and Arab inhabitants. Describing it as "nothing short of remarkable", Quigley noted that the government was admitting to itself that its support for Zionism had been prompted by considerations having nothing to do with the merits of Zionism or its consequences for Palestine. He also thinks that perhaps the Temple may be rebuilt, as a symbol of Jewish unity, of course, in a modernised form. [xxxiii], Some historians argue that the British government's decision reflected what James Gelvin, Professor of Middle Eastern History at UCLA, calls 'patrician anti-Semitism' in the overestimation of Jewish power in both the United States and Russia. The contents of the letter became known as the Balfour Declaration. ), constitute a repetition of the greatest . Over the course of 1917, however, a vigorous anti-Zionist movement within Parliament held up the progress of the planned declaration. As against this [? Asquith, who had favoured post-war reform of the Ottoman Empire, resigned in December 1916; his replacement David Lloyd George favoured partition of the Empire. The full text of the telegram to Sazonov may be found in Jeffries, In ascertaining what Zionists will accept and what refuse I am guided by your telegram coupled with my memory of Mr Samuel's memorandum to the Cabinet in March 1915. [134] Separately, a very different draft had been prepared by the Foreign Office, described in 1961 by Harold Nicolson – who had been involved in preparing the draft – as proposing a "sanctuary for Jewish victims of persecution". Zangwill objected… When Nordau insisted on the Congress's right to pass the resolutions regardless, Zangwill was outraged. Additionally, Britain’s leaders hoped that a formal declaration in favor of Zionism would help gain Jewish support for the Allies in neutral countries, in the United States and especially in Russia, where the anti-Semitic czarist government had just been overthrown with the help of Russia’s Jewish population. ", James Renton wrote: "Overall, it is clear that the Declaration, the Anglo-Zionist propaganda campaign, the public support from international labour and President Wilson gave the Zionists a powerful position from which to further their influence in American Jewry. 3-4 (Fall 2016): 77-87. The fact came out repeatedly in the Commission's conference with Jewish representatives, that the Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, by various forms of purchase. [34], The year 1916 marked four centuries since Palestine had become part of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 consisted of a public statement by the government of the United Kingdom during the First World War. In the Mandate document, it is stated: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” Thus, the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, upon which it was based, did not create Jewish historical rights, but rather recognized a pre-existing right. Now, it was Sykes who approached Weizmann and Sokolow and requested their assistance to advance radical aims. The Balfour Declaration, which resulted in a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians, was issued on November 2, 1917. [364], What exactly was in the minds of those who made the Balfour Declaration is speculative. These leaflets were airdropped over Jewish communities in Germany and Austria, as well as the Pale of Settlement, which had been given to the Central Powers following the Russian withdrawal. At the time when the Nazis were busy exterminating European Jewry, British officials were comparing the Zionists to Nazis.10, The historic Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel is the real claim to statehood. [257], In the broader Arab world, the declaration was seen as a betrayal of the British wartime understandings with the Arabs. [75] Picot was a French diplomat and former consul-general in Beirut. Known as the Balfour Declaration, this letter promised that Britain would "view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and "use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object." [as] Two years later, in his Memoirs of the Peace Conference,[at] Lloyd George described a total of nine factors motivating his decision as Prime Minister to release the declaration,[153] including the additional reasons that a Jewish presence in Palestine would strengthen Britain's position on the Suez Canal and reinforce the route to their imperial dominion in India. [153] The term was intentionally used instead of "state" because of opposition to the Zionist program within the British Cabinet. [273] With respect to Palestine, the resolution stated that the British were responsible for putting into effect the terms of the Balfour Declaration. The area’s instability led Britain to delay making a decision on Palestine’s future. The Balfour Declaration made clear that supporting Jewish rights did not preclude the rights and liberties of the Arab side. Yet a century later, arguing . It is considered a principal cause of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, often described as the world's most intractable conflict. 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. This was an impressive demonstration of the ability of the immigrant Zionists to rally massive support. [145], His Majesty's Government regards as essential for the realization of this principle the grant of internal autonomy to the Jewish nationality in Palestine, freedom of immigration for Jews, and the establishment of a Jewish National Colonizing Corporation for the resettlement and economic development of the country. The Balfour Declaration, authored by anti-Semites on behalf of ethno-racist colonialism, remains at the root of Palestine's innumerable woes. Presented in this way, the Declaration was shown to be a natural, almost preordained event. The Jewish population of Mandatory Palestine contributed large numbers of volunteers and committed its manpower, agriculture, manufacturing and expertise to the Allied cause. [117], Sokolow was granted an audience with Pope Benedict XV on 6 May 1917. Prior to this point, no active negotiations with Zionists had taken place, but Sykes had been aware of Zionism, was in contact with Moses Gaster – a former President of the English Zionist Federation[80] – and may have seen Samuel's 1915 memorandum. [278][279], In 1922, Congress officially endorsed America's support for the Balfour Declaration through the passage of the Lodge–Fish Resolution,[140][280][281] notwithstanding opposition from the State Department. At the time the Balfour Declaration was signed, Palestine was a colony held by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled this part of the Levant from 1516 until its defeat by the British. Britain Refuses Abbas' Demand for Apology Over 1917 Balfour Declaration Balfour Declaration's Legacy Is Toxic ", Gutwein described the impact as follows: "Sykes's approach to the Zionist-radical leadership in early 1917 led to a major transformation in Weizmann's political standing. The PZCs acceptance of the deferment again aroused the ire of supporters of the congress, who described it as a degrading surrender. I answered: "Mr. Balfour, you meet the wrong kind of Jews". . Whilst both Prime Ministers were Liberals and both governments were wartime coalitions, Lloyd George and Balfour, appointed as his Foreign Secretary, favoured a post-war partition of the Ottoman Empire as a major British war aim, whereas Asquith and his Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had favoured its reform. [105] Weizmann explained at the meeting that the Zionists had a preference for a British protectorate over Palestine, as opposed to an American, French or international arrangement; Balfour agreed, but warned that "there may be difficulties with France and Italy". [126] This letter was not published, but was deposited at the British Foreign Office. Some say that if it were not originally binding, it became so when it was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine. The following October Neville Chamberlain, while chairing a Zionist meeting, discussed a "new Jewish State. [292], With the advent of the declaration and the British entry into Jerusalem on 9 December, the Vatican reversed its earlier sympathetic attitude to Zionism and adopted an oppositional stance that was to continue until the early 1990s. ", Gelvin wrote: "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. For the document on the Dominions of the British Empire, see. More importantly, policy-makers in the Foreign Office believed that Jews could be prevailed upon to persuade the United States to join the War. [101] Although the United States declared war on Germany in the spring of 1917, it did not suffer its first casualties until 2 November 1917,[102] at which point President Woodrow Wilson still hoped to avoid dispatching large contingents of troops into the war. [87] Much of modern scholarship on the decision to issue the declaration focuses on the Zionist movement and rivalries within it,[333] with a key debate being whether the role of Weizmann was decisive or whether the British were likely to have issued a similar declaration in any event. As foreign secretary in the . By. This Islamic-run superpower ruled large areas of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa for more than 600 years. [253] They handed a petition signed by more than 100 notables to Ronald Storrs, the British military governor: We have noticed yesterday a large crowd of Jews carrying banners and over-running the streets shouting words which hurt the feeling and wound the soul. What are the Prospects for Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel? The formation of a strong Jewish community in Palestine would be considered as a valuable political asset. From June 2015 until October 2016 he served as Director-General of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [6] These political considerations were supported by a sympathetic evangelical Christian sentiment towards the "restoration of the Jews" to Palestine among elements of the mid-19th-century British political elite – most notably Lord Shaftesbury. [87] This principle of self-determination had been declared on numerous occasions subsequent to the declaration – President Wilson's January 1918 Fourteen Points, McMahon's Declaration to the Seven in June 1918, the November 1918 Anglo-French Declaration, and the June 1919 Covenant of the League of Nations that had established the mandate system. They, moreover, endeavor to undermine Israel’s claim by going back to 1948 and depicting it as a state “born in sin.” The Arabs and their advocates argue that Zionism aspired from its very inception to destroy the Palestinian people, to dispossess them from their patrimony, and took advantage of the opportunity availed by partition and the attendant war.11. [e] Two days later, Weizmann met Balfour again, for the first time since their initial meeting in 1905; Balfour had been out of government ever since his electoral defeat in 1906, but remained a senior member of the Conservative Party in their role as Official Opposition. [148], Subsequent authors have debated who the "primary author" really was. "[312], The wording of the declaration was thus incorporated into the British Mandate for Palestine, a legal instrument that created Mandatory Palestine with an explicit purpose of putting the declaration into effect and was finally formalized in September 1923. They considered we were steering straight upon the latter, and the very last thing they would do was to enlarge that State for they totally disapproved our policy. Sykes had also informed the Zionists he was meeting Picot the following day and Sokolow was nominated by Rothschild to join the meeting which duly took place at Sykes' house. It was later contradicted by the incompatible . Kaufman cites Stein as considering it feasible the possibility that the document was not brought to the attention of Lord Balfour or that he forgot about its existence and cites Verete as believing the document probably lost. The 1917 Balfour Declaration was a written correspondence between Arthur Balfour, the then-British foreign secretary, and Walter Rothschild, a leader in the British Jewish community. A committee was established in April 1915 by British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith to determine their policy towards the Ottoman Empire including Palestine. [89][90], Two days after taking office, Lloyd George told General Robertson, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, that he wanted a major victory, preferably the capture of Jerusalem, to impress British public opinion,[91] and immediately consulted his War Cabinet about a "further campaign into Palestine when El Arish had been secured. By mid-1917, Britain and France were mired in a virtual stalemate with Germany on the Western Front, while efforts to defeat Turkey on the Gallipoli Peninsula had failed spectacularly. 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. Such a declaration was the object of longing for decades, ever since Herzl had been trying to convince the major rulers and those of influence with the hope of obtaining a charter for Jewish settlement in Israel. [285][ao], Two weeks following the declaration, Ottokar Czernin, the Austrian Foreign Minister, gave an interview to Arthur Hantke, President of the Zionist Federation of Germany, promising that his government would influence the Turks once the war was over. In February 1919, France issued a statement that it would not oppose putting Palestine under British trusteeship and the formation of a Jewish State. It read: His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the . [j], This Anglo-French treaty was negotiated in late 1915 and early 1916 between Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, with the primary arrangements being set out in draft form in a joint memorandum on 5 January 1916. The following background information was published by the Rothschild archives, “Beginning in 1916, the British hoped that in exchange for their support of Zionism, ‘the Jews’ would help to finance the growing expenses of the First World War, which was becoming increasingly burdensome. As the British attempted to reconcile their diverse obligations, there began for the Zionists a period full of promise but also of intense frustration. On 11 March, telegrams[l] were sent in Grey's name to Britain's Russian and French ambassadors for transmission to Russian and French authorities, including the formula, as well as: The scheme might be made far more attractive to the majority of Jews if it held out to them the prospect that when in course of time the Jewish colonists in Palestine grow strong enough to cope with the Arab population they may be allowed to take the management of the internal affairs of Palestine (with the exception of Jerusalem and the holy places) into their own hands. Published: NOVEMBER 9, 2017 12:24. Russia was out of the war, and no amount of persuasion from Zionist Jews—who, despite Britain’s belief to the contrary, had relatively little influence in Russia—could reverse the outcome. ", Kedourie described the White Paper's 1922 statement as: "... the untruth that the government had 'always' regarded McMahon's reservation as covering the vilayet of Beirut and the sanjaq of Jerusalem, since in fact this argument was no older than Young's memorandum of November 1920", On his return from Petrograd, following his reprimand, Sykes wrote to Sir Arthur Nicholson "I am afraid from your telegram that I have caused you some uneasiness in regard to Picot & Palestine. Shortly before I withdrew, Balfour said: "It is curious. Retrouvez l'ensemble de l'information trafic, travaux et grève des lignes SNCF | TER Hauts-de-France. [311] As Huneidi noted, "wise or unwise, it is well nigh impossible for any government to extricate itself without a substantial sacrifice of consistency and self-respect, if not honour. This demonstration of support for Zionism among the masses of American Jews played a vital role in the British considerations which led to the Balfour Declaration. [298] Following Bonar Law's appointment as Prime Minister in late 1922, Curzon wrote to Law that he regarded the declaration as "the worst" of Britain's Middle East commitments and "a striking contradiction of our publicly declared principles".[299]. [363] From October 1987 to May 1988 it was lent outside the UK for display in Israel's Knesset. "[86], These wartime initiatives, inclusive of the declaration, are frequently considered together by historians because of the potential, real or imagined, for incompatibility between them, particularly in regard to the disposition of Palestine. Balfour Beatty . [77], Continuing Arab disquiet over Allied intentions also led during 1918 to the British Declaration to the Seven and the Anglo-French Declaration, the latter promising "the complete and final liberation of the peoples who have for so long been oppressed by the Turks, and the setting up of national governments and administrations deriving their authority from the free exercise of the initiative and choice of the indigenous populations". [274] The Italian endorsement of the Declaration had included the condition "... on the understanding that there is no prejudice against the legal and political status of the already existing religious communities ..." (in Italian "... che non ne venga nessun pregiudizio allo stato giuridico e politico delle gia esistenti communita religiose ..."[276] The boundaries of Palestine were left unspecified, to "be determined by the Principal Allied Powers. [32][33] Globally, as of 1913 – the latest known date prior to the declaration – the equivalent figure was approximately 1%. [114] Sykes, who had prepared the way in correspondence with Picot,[115] arrived a few days after Sokolow; in the meantime, Sokolow had met Picot and other French officials, and convinced the French Foreign Office to accept for study a statement of Zionist aims "in regard to facilities of colonization, communal autonomy, rights of language and establishment of a Jewish chartered company. [135][136], Following further discussion, a revised – and at just 46 words in length, much shorter – draft declaration was prepared and sent by Lord Rothschild to Balfour on 18 July. [106] Prior to 1917, the British had led the fighting on the southern border of the Ottoman Empire alone, given their neighbouring Egyptian colony and the French preoccupation with the fighting on the Western Front that was taking place on their own soil. He then may or may not have been induced to sign it", since it ran counter to Faisal's other public and private statements at the time. "[252] A delegation of the Muslim-Christian Association, headed by Musa al-Husayni, expressed public disapproval on 3 November 1918, one day after the Zionist Commission parade marking the first anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. In August 1920 the report of the Palin Commission, the first in a long line of British Commissions of Inquiry on the question of Palestine during the Mandate period,[300] noted that "The Balfour Declaration ... is undoubtedly the starting point of the whole trouble".
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