Balfour
Declaration 1917
November 2nd, 1917
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
MYTH
“The Balfour Declaration did not give Jews a right to a homeland in
Palestine.”
FACT
In 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration:
His Majesty's Government views
with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
people, and will use their best endeavors 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.
According to the Peel
Commission, appointed by the British Government to investigate the cause of
the 1936 Arab
riots, "the field in which the Jewish National Home was to be
established was understood, at the time of the Balfour Declaration, to be the
whole of historic Palestine, including Transjordan."11
The Mandate
for Palestine's purpose was to put into effect the Balfour Declaration. It
specifically referred to "the historical connections of the Jewish people
with Palestine" and to the moral validity of "reconstituting their
National Home in that country." The term "reconstituting"
shows recognition of the fact that Palestine had been the Jews' home.
Furthermore, the British were instructed to "use their best endeavors to
facilitate" Jewish immigration, to encourage settlement on the land and to
"secure" the Jewish National Home. The word "Arab" does not
appear in the Mandatory award.12
The Mandate was formalized by the 52 governments at the League of Nations on
July 24, 1922.
11Ben Halpern, The Idea of a Jewish State, (MA: Harvard
University Press, 1969), p. 201.
12Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time,
(NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 129.