Balfour Declaration: what Palestinians think
The Balfour Declaration pledged to protect rights of non-Jews. Instead, it led to their removal from their ancient homeland
On the street in West Jerusalem named after Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary of a century ago, the declaration that also bears his name still evokes controversy.
For the Israelis, it was the key that opened the door to a state of their own in their ancient homeland after centuries of persecution and anti-Semitism.
The pleasant, quiet street is in Talbiyeh, a neighbourhood that was Arab until 1948. Now the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, lives there while the original residents of nearby homes became refugees long ago.
The declaration stated that the British government “views 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”.
At the time, Jews were a minority, and the declaration assured that the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities would not be harmed.
Today, for most of those on Balfour Street, the centenary is a cause for celebration. But there are also Israelis such as Neria Aloush, 26, who have their doubts.
“It was good for us because we needed a state but it was problematic morally,” Ms Aloush says. “Maybe the state needed to be established in a different way. Maybe they should have thought about the other side that also lives here.
“It’s clear there was injustice. Just because one nation doesn’t have a state doesn’t mean you take away from another.”
For the Palestinians, the declaration launched a cycle of dispossession, homelessness and the downgrading of their rights that continues to this day.
But as they call for an apology from the British, Mr Netanyahu will celebrate the centenary in London with British prime minister, Theresa May, who last week said: “We are proud of the role we played in the creation of the state of Israel and we will certainly mark the centenary with pride.”
But, she also said: “We must also be conscious of the sensitivities some people do have about the Balfour Declaration. We recognise there is more work to be done.”
But “sensitivities” does not begin to describe the direct line Palestinians draw between the Balfour Declaration, allowing Jewish development in Palestine under the British mandate, and the Nakba, the national catastrophe in 1948 when 700,000 Arabs were expelled by Jewish forces or fled during the war that accompanied the birth of Israel.
“I hate the British,” says Ramadan Safi, an engineer from Ramallah. “Most families from the village of Beit Nabala say the snake is Britain.”
Mr Safi grew up in the Deir Amar refugee camp west of Ramallah, but until 1948 his father had a large farm in the village near what is now Ben Gurion Airport.
“He lost everything in 1948,” Mr Safi says. “He died when he was 80 and right up until that time he kept calling what the British did a crime against our Palestinian rights.
“I feel that British policy was the basic cause of me being a refugee. Balfour didn’t have a land but he gave it to the Jews. The British role was fundamental in the Nakba event. They should apologise and correct their policy, and be balanced and understand the Palestinians should have their state.”
The Palestinian Authority is calling for demonstrations today at British embassies all over the world. Protests are also planned across the West Bank and Gaza, with the main ones to be held in Ramallah and Gaza City.
The PA also plans to deliver to the British consulate in East Jerusalem 100,000 letters written by schoolchildren calling on the British government to recognise the suffering caused by the Balfour Declaration.
Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, sees things differently. The Balfour Declaration represented more than the chance for the Jewish people to claim what they saw as their ancestral home. It represented international recognition of the suffering of the Jews, even before the Holocaust.
“There was this moral aspect, without any doubt, which the international community recognised,” Mr Shoval says. “The civilised international community recognised its debt to the Jewish people and how to deal with that – by re-establishing Jewish nationhood in their country.”
But to Palestinians, any celebration of the centenary by British officialdom feels like rubbing salt into the wounds.
“When people celebrate Balfour they add insult to injury,” says Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi.
“It tells the Palestinian people there is a blatant double standard. The people of Palestine are constantly denied the protection and recognition afforded all other people by international law.
“The British owe us an apology. They should recognise Palestine and recognise that the arrogance of a colonial power to give away other people’s land is something that can’t be allowed to continue.
“We have made the historic compromise, accepted Israel on the majority of Pales- tinian land and still we are being excluded and denied, and the UK is celebrating its role in this injustice and not recognising what a horrible decision that was for the Palestinian people.
“They are looking at one side of the coin, that they did something good for Jews who were victims of the West and European anti-Semitism, but they totally ignore how they inflicted such painful injustice on the Palestinian people for generations – on my parents, myself, my daughters and granddaughters. This is ongoing.”
Yousef Jabareen, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, says the repercussions are still felt today by all segments of Palestinian society, whether in Israel, the occupied territories or abroad.
“Ironically, the discourse used in 1917 is now being used by the Netanyahu government,” he says, giving the example of the nationality bill being pushed by the coalition, which has been criticised for appearing to give primacy to Jews over Arabs.
Mr Jabareen also sees many similarities between the way the Israeli government has restricted the Palestinians in the West Bank to limited self rule without independence and the Balfour Declaration’s provision of civil and religious rights – but not political or national rights – for non-Jews in Palestine.
Leaders of Israel’s Arab citizens have called for a protest outside the British embassy in Tel Aviv on November 7.
Anat Berko, a politician from Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, called them disloyal and suggested they were free to move to the PA self-rule enclaves in the West Bank or Gaza.
Mr Jabareen said: “After 100 years, the substance of the Balfour Declaration is still alive among those in power and Palestinians are still suffering the ramifications.”
Back on Balfour Street, Yali Haran, 58, a former academic at the Hebrew University, said Balfour had helped bring forth the miracle of Israel’s existence.
“This was a recognition of our legitimate right,” Mr Haran says. “It was a miracle and an amazing historic event. A nation returned to its land after 2,000 years. Despite all the problems, it’s a successful country compared with the Third World.”
But he fully acknowledges Palestinian anger.
“The Palestinian problem is still there,” he says. “Israel doesn’t know how to solve it. I fear it is war for eternity.”
At the time, Jews were a minority. The declaration assured the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities would not be harmed