Balfour Declaration

The Historical Context

The Balfour Declaration was a letter dated November 2, 1917 from British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who had been Prime Minister (1902-05) Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930), to Lord Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation, a private Zionist organization committed to the creation of a Jewish homeleand in Israel. The letter stated the position, agreed to at a British Cabinet meeting on October 31 1917, that the British government supported Zionist plans for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine, with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of existing communities there. This was a reference to the Arab population, mainly Muslim although it included Christians too.

At the time, the area of Palestine was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire, and the borders of what would become Palestine had been outlined as part of the May 16 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France [1]. This agreement anticipated victory against the Ottomans and the parcelling up of the Empire between the European allies. Russia was also to have had a share but following the Revolution there, it was not included in the final distribution. Libya went to Italy, France would controll Syria and the Lebanon, Britain Iraq and Palestine. These territories were technically League of Nations' mandates. Language from the Declaration was later incorporated into the Treaty of Sèvres with Turkey and the British Mandathte of Palestine (1922) [2].

British pro-Jewish Sympathy

In exchange for the commitment in the declaration, the Jewish community would seek to encourage the United States to join World War I. That was not the sole reason, for there had long been considerable support in Britain for the idea of a Jewish homeland, but the timing was influenced by the possibility. In 1903, the British had offered the Zionists part of Uganda in Africa for their homeland. Official British sympathy towards the Jews dates at least from the time of Oliver Cromwell who, in 1655, allowed them to return following their exile in 1290. Cromwell may have thought that the New Jerusalem would be built, with their help, on British soil. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), a convert to Christianity from Judaism (Jews could not hold the Prime Ministership) had openly championed the intellectual and cultural achievements of the Jews and in his writing he tried to counter the negative public image of Jews by presenting them as . He campaigned in Parlimant for the removal of surviving legal restrictions on the Jews. This led to the election of the first practicing Jew to sit in the House of Commons, Lionel de Rothschild in 1858. Disraeli was elected in 1837.It has been said that it was not the Jews who claimed Disraeli but Disrali claimed the Jews.

At the time that the Declaration was made, British officials in Egypt, in correspondence with the Sharif of Makkah, Hussain bin Ali were involved in making a different set of assurances that in return for support against the Ottomans, the Sharif would benefit from the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. He aspired for an Arab state, stretching from Syria to the Yemen. This British probably never had such a large territory in mind but T. E Lawrence (1888-1935)[3] better known as Lawrence of Arabia, who represented British interests at the court of the Sharif and helped to lead the Legion he provided, presented plans to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. This included diving Iraq into Kurdish and Arab states and separate administration for Araba and Armenians in Syra and an Arab state to the South, including Palestine with certain areas under British control. The British and other European powers already enjoyed various concessions from the Ottomans, which they wanted to keep. They also wanted to maintain a stratgeic presence in the area, and to retain access to oil supplies there. Although no official Treaty existed, Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt, gave assurances in several letters, including that of October 24, 1915 [4]. This stated, 'Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca'. The exact borders, however, were left vague ([5]. A British promise, said the Sharif, is like gold. However, at the Paris Peace Conference Britain did not honor these promises. The Mandate for Palestine, based on the Balfour Declaration, with the gaol of establishing a Jewish homeland, instead gave Britain control of Palestine. However, the British half-kept their promise by installing one of the Sharifs sons as King of Jordan, which they carved from out of Palestine, and another as King of Iraq. Subsequently, Palestine or Israel has been referred to as the 'twice-promised' land. The Sharif declaredd himself King of the Hejaz but lost power there to the Saudi revolt in 1924.

Text of the declaration

The declaration, a typed letter signed in ink by Balfour, reads as follows:

Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.

Dear Walter 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

Development and differing views

The record of discussions that led up to the final text of the Balfour Declaration clarifies some details of its wording. The phrase "national home" was intentionally used instead of "state", and the British devoted some effort over the following decades to denying that a state was the intention, including the Churchill White Paper, 1922. However, in private, many British officials agreed with the interpretation of the Zionists that a state would be the eventual outcome.

An early draft used the word that in referring to Palestine as a Jewish homeland, which was changed to in Palestine to avoid committing to it being the whole of Palestine. Similarly, an early draft did not include the commitment to not prejudicing the rights of the non-Jewish communities. These changes came about partly as the result of the urgings of Edwin Samuel Montagu, an influential anti-Zionist Jew and Secretary of State for India, who, among others, was concerned that the declaration without those changes could result in increased anti-Semitic persecution.

Negotiation

One of the main Jewish figures who negotiated the granting of the declaration was Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the leading spokesman for organized Zionism in Britain. During the first meeting between Chaim Weizmann and Balfour, in 1906, the Unionist leader was impressed by Weizman's personality. Balfour asked Weizmann why Palestine—and Palestine alone—could be the basis for Zionism. "Anything else would be idolatry", Weizmann protested, adding: "Mr. Balfour, supposing I were to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?" "But Dr. Weizmann", Balfour retorted, "we have London", to which Weizmann rejoined, "That is true, but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh."^[6]

Weizmann was a chemist who managed to synthesize acetone via fermentation. Acetone is needed in the production of cordite, a propellant needed to lob artillery shells. Germany had a corner on a key acetone ingredient, calcium acetate. Without calcium acetate, Britain could not produce acetone and without acetone there would be no cordite. Without cordite, then Britain may have lost the Great War. When Balfour asked what payment he would in return for the use of his process, Weizmann responded, "There is only one thing I want. A national home for my people." He eventually received both payment for his discovery and a role in the history of the origins of the state of Israel.

It has been reported that Balfour's sympathy with the plight of the Israelis was influenced by an ilicit relationship with the wife of a high-ranking Jewish official.^[7]

Contradictory assurances

In his November, 2002 interview with the New Statesman magazine[8], the then UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, blamed Britain's imperial past for many of the modern political problems, including the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The Balfour declaration and the contradictory assurances which were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the Israelis—again, an interesting history for us, but not an honourable one," he said.

However, the 1947 United Nations plan was for two States, a Jewish majority state and an Arab majority state. When, despite voting in favor of this plan (Muslim countries voted against) the international community failed to create any mechanism to put it into practice, Israel declared independence (May 14, 1948).

Footnotes

^ Dugdale, Blanche "Arthur James Balfour", Vol I, p. 326 & 327, London: Hutchinson, 1939 (by Lord Balfour's niece).
^ MacMillan, Margaret "Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed the World" NY: Randon Books, 1st US ed 2000 ISBN 0375508260

External links

The Balfour Declaration - Background and history of the declaration
text of the 1922 White Paper from the Avalon Project
Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 26 May 2005, "The birth of modern Israel: A scrap of paper that changed history"

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