The Balfour Declaration
Britain publicly commits to the establishment of a 'national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine, without consulting its overwhelmingly Arab population.
On 2 November 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent a letter to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, stating that His Majesty’s Government viewed “with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The letter added that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” — communities that then constituted roughly ninety percent of the population.
The declaration was issued while Palestine was still under Ottoman rule and contradicted earlier British wartime assurances to Arab leaders. It was later incorporated into the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which came into effect in 1923, giving Britain’s commitment international legal standing.
For Palestinians, the declaration marks the beginning of a process in which their future was decided by outside powers. Its centenary in 2017 was marked by Palestinian calls for an official British apology.
Cited works
2- britannica.com — Balfour Declaration(opens in a new tab)https://www.britannica.com/event/Balfour-Declaration
- un.org — history(opens in a new tab)https://www.un.org/unispal/history/