the balfour declaration

‘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.’

● november 2 1917, arthur balfour, published to the world a week later on november 9th
● the jews see it as a charter document for the state of israel and palestinians see it as a
betrayal of their land because it’s part of israel now
○ gave away the land of palestine to another people, made it israel
● britain claimed there was a rally that demanded they honour their promise to the jews in
1917 to ‘ensure equal rights to all jewish communities’ and to help palestinians and
israelis build a peaceful future + equal rights for all
● for israelis, 14 may is independence day = the birth of their nation
● for palestinians, 15 may is the day of catastrophe = when they were driven from their
homes
● the british needed this declaration because they needed a ‘successful second front’ to
break the deadlock at home and to increase morale because russia’s collapsed = its
allies were in a precarious position
○ also wanted territorial claims = sent edmund allenby to take over the egyptian
expeditionary force in 1917, moved hq to cairo to keep a closer eye on
commanders and troops, upgraded railway lines, water pipes and supply lines,
taught troops to take initiative instead of taking orders to the letter
○ received christian, jewish and muslim leaders, but ultimately was the reason
britain came to know about the zionist agenda = british support for a jewish
homeland would allow them to have claims over the territory = moral sanction
● also to appeal to international jewry, thought it would improve support in america and
russia where pro-zionist jews would help swing political and public opinion because
russia’s civil war made them wary of fighting and american mobilisation was
disappointingly slow
● the wording in the declaration was vague, acknowledging the rights of the ‘non-jewish
communities’ but they made up 90% of the community = shows how little care
knowledge they had about the muslims who lived there and considered palestine their
homeland
● part of the reason for the european jewish settler movement = zionist project to
colonise palestine and create a jewish state
● the palestinians (christian, muslims, jews) were welcoming of the european jewish
immigrants at first until their exclusivist settler zionist ideology became apparent = the
 israelis are mostly of european descent, whereas the palestinians are the native arabs
who had inhabited the palestinian region since ottoman rule
○ there were feelings of solidarity with the palestinians echoed throughout the
middle east because many of them also felt betrayed by european colonial
duplicity = the mandate system that was supposed to be an alternative to
colonisation
● needed to gain international recognition for the zionist movement = the balfour
declaration, which was against the wishes of the indigenous population, jews only
made up about 10% of the population, the other 90% who were arab were totally
ignored
● the british were basically supporting the zionist movement in palestine as a result of the
balfour promise, both ideologically and materially, balfour promise was actualised
during the british occupation/when they were the mandatory power
○ european jewish immigration rose drastically, jewish land ownership tripled from
2%, partly because of what happened during ww2 and the holocaust, israel was
established in 1949
● when the great arab revolt (1936-1939) happened, the british proposed a partition =
taking the arab population out of the jewish areas = something that really appealed to
the jewish leadership
○ also arab executive in 1920 never really happened because no recognition + had
rivalry = the two palesitnian families
○ hajj amin-husayni = the mufti of jerusalem, this was important because if you
were the supreme religious authority, you also have control over all the waqf
land and could control the economy from that but the arabs didn’t have the
equivalent of the world zionist organisation = couldn’t put pressure on british
government to limit jewish immigration + also not much focus on the
palestinians because other arab states were also trying to gain independence =
efforts dissipated
● key player = chaim weizmann who basically convinced the british government that the
zionists would be important for their war effort = really good spokesperson for the
zionist movement and also involved in the synthesising of acetone which was essential
for making explosives = essential for britain’s war effort
○ convinced zionists were important = they could help sustain the russian front
which was previously collapsed because of the russian revolutionary movement
+ would also encourage america to mobilise
○ led to the writing of the balfour declaration
● weizmann was the president of the world zionist organisation = claims he represents
jews or at least the ones who want to immigrate to palestine
● in 1919, faisal and weizmann meet and say jews could immigrate to palestine + arabs
would look after them, and weizmann says that the arab rights would be protected too
 ○ arabs get syria and damascus and the jews go unbothered to palestine but the
thing is faisal didn’t have much of a say in palestine anyway, but that agreement
doesn’t exist after syria became french
○ the arabs were supposed to get an arab state in syria so the jews could have
palestine but this didn’t happen

the arab-israeli conflict

● basically, there are two main groups that have claims on the land that until 1948 was
known as palestine: the jews and the arabs
○ split into three areas after the war of 1948-1949P: the state of israel, the gaza
strip and the west bank (west of the river jordan)
● palestine is a vague holy land = the jews claim that because god promised the
descendants of abraham a home land and also because it was the ancient site of the
jewish kingdoms israel and judea, and also because of the jews’ needs for a safe haven
after the horrors that happened in europe
● the palestinian arabs’ claim to the land is based on their continual residence in the
region = been there for hundreds of years and were the major demographic until 1948,
and also reject the biblical based claims of the jewish, and even claim that since
abraham’s son ishmael is the forefather of the arabs, god’s promise to abraham’s
descendants should include arabs too + they don’t believe they have to forfeit their land
to compensate for the atrocities that happened in europe against the jews, led to a new
surge of arab nationalism especially when immigration increased from 1930 to 1936
● another reason the jews wanted to build an independent jewish state was because they
were spread all across the globe = jewish diaspora, so they wanted a single place
where jews could come together through immigration and settlement = palestine was
the logical choice because it was the site of jewish origin
○ first wave of jewish immigration from europe began in 1882, but at the time
palestine was part of the ottoman empire + israel which is important to all three
monotheistic religions judaism, islam and christianity was under the direct
control of the capital of istanbul because of its religious significance
○ most of the jewish population that was there were concentrated in four main
cities of religious significance, their attachment to the land was religious not
national but did not support the zionist movement in europe
○ by the outbreak of ww1 in 1914, there were 60,000 jews in palestine, of which
36,000 were immigrants + the arab population was 683,000
○ increased even more with the rise of hitler in germany in 1933 = more land
purchases and settlements
● when the british took control of palestine in the form of a mandate, this was the first
time that palestine itself was made a single political entity
● many arabs throughout the middle east were also angered by the british and french’s
failure to deliver on their promise for anb arab state + was made worse in palestine
because of the balfour declaration where britain promised to help the jews create an
independent jewish state + made even worse by the surge of european jewish
immigration, land purchases and settlement
● the palestinians were opposed to the influx of european jews because they feared that
this would mean an eventual establishment of a jewish state in palestine and threatened
their position in the country + they opposed the british rule because it stood in the way
of their right of self rule
● the conflict came to a crest when clashes between the arabs and palestinians
happened between 1920-1921, where equal numbers of people from both groups were
killed
○ the jewish national fund purchased large tracts of land from absent arab
landowners = caused the arabs who were living there to be evicted, and so the
displacement worsened the palestinian and jewish tensions
● also clashes between religious rights in 1928 = the wailing wall is important to the jews
because it’s the sole remnant of the second jewish temple, but it’s also important to
muslims who call it the noble sanctuary = the place where their last prophet ascended
to heaven on a winged horse, now hosts the al-aqsa mosque and the dome of the rock
● 15 august 1915 = betar jewish youth movement (pre-state organisation of revisionist
zionists) demonstrated and raised a zionist flag over the wailing wall = resulted in the
arabs thinking the noble sanctuary was in danger and attacking jews in jerusalem,
hebron and safed, 64 jews died in hebron = the jewish community ceased to exist
because they all moved to jerusalem
○ in total, 115 arabs and 133 jews were killed + many others wounded
● palestinian resistance to british control and zionist settlements came to a climax during
the arab revolt of 1936-1939 = the british suppressed it with the help of zionist forces
and the complicity of neighouring arab countries
○ caused the british to reconsider their governing policies because of the tension
= issued the white paper which limited jewish immigration, land purchases and
promising independence in ten years = would have led to an arab-palestinian
majority
● the white papers were considered a betrayal of the balfour declaration and was a
particularly egregious act considering the fact that millions of jews were facing
extermination in europe = therefore it marks the end of the british-zionist alliance
● at that same time, the defeat of the arab revolt and the exile of palestinian leadership
meant that the crucial decade in which the future of palestine was decided was during a
time where the palestinians were politically disorganised
reasons explanation

strategic importance near suez canal, needed to go through it to go to cairo

ww1

religious reduce the impact of islam

antisemitic wanted jews to leave

maintaining good international jewry = they give them money + also for influence over
relations the other countries through their jewish communities

undermining reduce impact of islam