Balfour’s promise
A hundred years ago, the Balfour Declaration pledged British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine
What exactly did Balfour declare?
On 2 November 1917, Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary, wrote to Lord Rothschild, a leading member of the British Jewish community, declaring that the government viewed “with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”, and would “use their best endeavours” to facilitate it. At that moment, as Arthur Koestler famously put it, “one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third” – and initiated a process that would lead to the creation of Israel in 1948. The first statement was, though, qualified: it stated that “nothing may be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.
How did the Declaration come about?
Pogroms in imperial Russia in the 1880s had led to a vast Jewish exodus, mostly to the US and Britain – but partly to Palestine, from which the Jews had been expelled by the Romans in AD70. Around the same time, western Europe saw a sharp increase in anti-semitism, exemplified by the Dreyfus affair in France, which began in 1894. The result was the rise of the modern Zionist movement, seeking a homeland in Israel. The Austro-hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl held the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. Chaim Weizmann, a Russian Jewish émigré who lectured in chemistry at Manchester University, became an extremely effective lobbyist for the cause in Britain (see box). This was significant because, on 11 December 1917, British forces under General Allenby captured Jerusalem from Ottoman Turkey.
But why did the British agree to support the Zionists?
Even today, it’s not altogether clear. There was genuine sympathy for Jewish aspirations: in 1903 Britain had already offered Herzl 5,000 sq miles in Kenya for a Jewish homeland (the Zionists deemed this inappropriate). But realpolitik likely dominated. David Lloyd George said he thought backing Zionism would help “enlist Jewish support” for the Allied war effort “in neutral countries, notably America”; it was feared that the US might join the War on Germany’s side. Britain also wished to dismember the Ottoman Empire and to use Palestine as a bulwark to protect British-ruled Egypt – and the Suez Canal. Ronald Storrs, the then British governor of Jerusalem, said that a Jewish state would form “a little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”.
What about the Arabs’ claims?
In 1917, there were around 670,000 people in Palestine – an area which then incorporated modern Israel and Jordan, and which Britain governed under a League of Nations (LON) mandate from 1920 to 1948. Of these, Jews numbered 60,000. The vast majority (91%) were Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, and for them the Declaration showed a typically colonial disregard, well illustrated by a remark Balfour made in 1919: “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.” But in the cabinet, Lord Curzon was strongly opposed to Balfour’s policy. “What is to become of the people of the country?” he asked; it was at his behest that the qualification about “non-jewish communities” was included. Yet this only made the Declaration self-contradictory: the Promised Land was “twice promised”, it is said. And crucially, it awarded the Arab population only “civil and religious” rights, not political or national status.
How was the Declaration received?
It gave Zionism – until that point a fringe movement among the Jewish diaspora – a powerful shot in the arm. “There was a great stirring in the dry bones of Israel,” wrote one Zionist, “as if in realisation of the prophetic vision of Ezekiel.” Arab leaders were horrified, particularly Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who believed that Britain had in 1915 promised Arab independence in Palestine, in return for his launching the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. In the ensuing years there were many riots in Palestine. At protests, Arabs shouted: “Falyasqut wa’d Balfour!” (“Down with Balfour!”).
How directly did it lead to the creation of Israel?
Although Balfour’s wording never explicitly promised a Jewish state, the gestation of Israel took place entirely within the “British imperial womb”, as one historian put it. Even those who opposed the Declaration, such as Lord Curzon and many colonial officials, recognised that it represented a binding commitment. In 1922, the LON ratified Britain’s mandate to govern Palestine, and – following strong British pressure – incorporated the promise to establish a Jewish homeland into the mandate’s terms. In the 1920s and 1930s, as the number of Jewish settlers grew, civil strife made Palestine ungovernable. Ultimately, the UN plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1948 relied on US and Soviet support. But it would not have happened without the Declaration.
How is it viewed today?
Israelis remember it, said Ian Black in The Guardian, as “a magnanimous British gesture towards a persecuted people who were yearning to ‘return’ from exile to their biblical homeland”. By contrast, the Palestinian mission to the UK calls it “the root cause of our destitution, dispossession and the ongoing occupation”: the traditional Arabic phrase for it translates as “the calamitous promise”. On the night of the 100th anniversary, Theresa May will attend a commemorative meal with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The Government’s position is that it will “mark” the anniversary, not “celebrate” it, because it is proud of its role in the creation of Israel, but recognises that Palestinians were dispossessed as a result. A Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, said the event would be marked with “pride and sadness”.