These words have been lifted from a presentation which was presented at a public talk given on the Balfour Declaration, exploring its origins, motivations, and lasting impact on the region. Presented by Peter Reilly, BA, a former history teacher born in Palestine before the establishment of Israel.
THE BALFOUR DECLATION 1917
The Letter That
Changed History
The Seeds of the Ongoing
Conflict in the Middle East
Presentation by Peter Reilly
The content on this page will go over;
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The Middle East in 1914
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What is the Balfour Declaration and how it came about
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What is Zionism and the historical background
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The Palestinian Mandate
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The 1948 war and the birth of Israel
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The Aftermath
Palestine had been part of the Ottoman Empire since 1516
Ottoman (Turkish) Empire
Existed from 1299 to 1923.
One of the largest and longest lasting empires in history.
From the 16th century is was synonymous with the Caliphate, or Islamic State.
It peaked in 17th century when it covered the Balkans and Hungary and reached the gates of Vienna and controlled land around the Mediterranean basin.
It lost territories in the Balkans in the 19th century.
The Ottomans or Turks were allied to the Germans during WW1 in order to regain some of their lost territories.
Palestine pre-1914
Palestina was named by the Romans.
From mid 7th century, closely linked to Arab and Muslim worlds, with short periods in medieval times, when ceded to the crusades.
It was part of the Ottoman empire for 400 yrs from 1517 to 1917.
Divided administratively into the Vilayet of Beirut in the north and the independent Sanjak of Jerusalem in the south.
Population in 1887 was 462,465. 87% Muslim, 10% Christian and 3% Jewish. All lived in peace and harmony sharing the same Arab culture.
Jewish immigration grew from Russia as a result of the Pogroms.
Ottomans allowed Jews to buy land. Jewish population grew to 7% by 1914.
A thriving Arab community, mostly rural with small towns, readily exposed to other cultures.
Distinct Palestinian dialect and customs.
Gradual growth of national identity, along with the general trend.
Adriaan Reland's 1712 Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata (Palestine's Ancient Monuments Illustrated) contains an early description and timeline of the historical references to the name "Palestine.
Zionism
Zionism is a movement founded by Theodor Herzl in 1896 whose goal is the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael, or Zion, the Jewish synonym for Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
Historically, Zionism has been a movement dominated by secularist Jews. Herzl and most of his colleagues were assimilated Jews, who did not believe in or practice the Torah. Some Zionists were vehemently anti-religious, and saw the Torah and mitzvos as outdated rituals with no place in their modern state.
Only a small proportion of Jews supported Zionism until the 1940s.
It was born in an age where settler colonisation was rife. There was the 'scramble for Africa' where European powers competed to extend their empires without any regards for the rights of the native populations. Zionists were offered Uganda.
Theodor Herzl 1860 -1904
Herzl recognized that anti-Semitism would be HARNESSED to his own--Zionist-purposes."
( Benny Morris Righteous Victims, p. 21)
“It is essential that the sufferings of Jews.. . become worse. . . this will assist in realization of our plans. . .I have an excellent idea. . . I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth. . . The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-Semites shall be our best friend.
(From his Diary, Part I, pp. 16)
Early Zionist Quotes
In 1895, Herzl, the founder of Zionism, wrote in his diary:
“We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back. ”
(America And The Founding Of Israel, p. 49, Righteous Victims, p. 21-22)
Ze'ev Jabotinsky advocated the colonization of Palestine under the protection of arms regardless of the Palestinian people's objections. He stated in 1925:
“Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native [Palestinian] population. This colonization can, therefore, continue and develop under the protection of a force independent of the local population —an iron wall which the native [Palestinian] population cannot break through. This is, in to, our policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other way would be hypocrisy.”
(Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 28)
Christian Zionism
Preceded Jewish Zionism
Gained momentum in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Believe in the biblical Prophecy that Christ would reappear but only after the return of the Jews to Israel. For Lloyd George and others in the Government at the time their faith mixed seamlessly with political necessity.
This meant ignoring the nationalistic aspirations of the Palestinian population.
The Balfour Declaration
A letter written by Arthur Balfour, Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, declaring the support of the British Government for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Lord Rothschild was a leading member of the Jewish community.
It was sent on 2nd November 1917, during WW1
The Balfour Declaration led the League of Nations to entrust the UK with the Palestinian Mandate.
The letter:
Foreign Office
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,
Arthur James Balfour
Reasons for the Balfour Declaration
Jews were being persecuted in Europe, particularly Russia, and the British government were sympathetic to their suffering.
Britain needed Zionist support in Russia (to stay in WW1), and in the USA (to join the war).
Intense lobbying by influential Zionists and strong connections with the British Government, some of whom were Jewish.
To further and protect British interests, especially as Palestine was strategically close to Egypt and the Suez Canal
Lloyd George and Chaim Weizmann
Lloyd George was the Minister of Munitions before becoming PM. He approached Chaim Weizmann, a chemist, to solve the shortage of acetone, used in the production of explosives.
He was also a Christian and Bible reader, believing Jews should return to their spiritual home.
He was an unashamed imperialist.
Chaim Weizmann was president of the English Zionist federation and later became the first President of Israel in 1949. He invented a process to increase the production of acetone, vital for the war effort. Lloyd George, The Minister for Munitions at the time was eternally grateful.
Arthur Balfour and Lord Rothschild
Foreign Secretary.
Christian Zionist
Anti-Semitic – favour strong anti-immigration laws in 1905 to stop Russian Jews seeking haven in Britain
Leader of Jewish community.
Herbert Samuel
Member of British Government
Fervent Zionist, Jewish, atheist
Wanted a Jewish state but not while they were a small minority.
He recommended Palestine be annexed to the British Empire and Britain sponsors its colonisation with the view of creating a Jewish majority.
First High Commissioner of Palestine
Edwin Samuel Montagu
Government Minister
Anti-Zionist Jew
Opposed Balfour Declaration
Responsible for changing the wording to protect Jews who choose not to settle in Palestine.
“Zionism was opposed by every British Jew who is prominent in life, with the exception of Lord Rothschild, Herbert Samual and a few others”
The Balfour Declaration Controversy
Only 67 words, but they led to the world's most intractable conflict - an enduring crisis to this day.
The Declaration was made without consulting the Palestinian people, Parliament, or the wider Jewish community.
There's no legal right to promise Palestine to the Jews as a 'national home'. The concept does not exist in international law.
One nation, Britain, promised the country of another people, Palestinians, to a third people, the Jews.
It was drafted several times before being finalised – to allay the concerns of anti-Zionists and the Arabs. Deliberately ambiguous.
The Jewish people to have 'a national home' - a nation in Palestine – while the Arabs were only regarded as 'non-Jewish communities in Palestine'.
Protection of civil and religious rights of non-Jews, but no mention of their political rights.
National Self- Determination
The Declaration and the British policies that followed contradicted the principle of right to self-determination.
Promising a home for Jews which at the time were 9% of the population, while disregarding the rights of the Palestinians.
The Declaration became an international treaty when incorporated into the British Mandate.
The Mandate also entrusted Britain with 'a sacred trust for civilisation' which was to prepare the country for independence. But that means democracy, to have elections, a national assembly and a national executive. The Palestinians were denied these.
The Jews were given a representative body, which became The Jewish Agency, an embryonic government, to look after the interests of Jews. No such organisation was set up for the Palestinians.
British Promises
1915 Henry McMahon, The British High Commissioner in Palestine promised the Arabs their independence if they revolted against the Turks.
1916 The Sykes-Picot Agreement, secretly divided the Ottoman Arab provinces outside the Arabian peninsular into areas of British and French control and influence. 'The line in the sand.' Palestine was to be put under international administration.
1917 The Balfour Declaration promised to create a national homeland for the Jewish people.
Promise to give Arab Independence
“As for the regions lying within the proposed frontiers, in which Great Britain is free to act without detriment to her ally France, I am authorised to give you the following pledges on behalf of the Government of Great Britain, and to reply as follows to your note: .. Great Britain is prepared to recognise and uphold the independence of the Arabs in all the regions lying within the frontiers.”
Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916
Secret plan to divide the Middle East between French and British influence
The French taking most of the Levant, southern Anatolia, and the Mosul area.
The British extended their control over the southern Levant, expanding eastward to Baghdad and Basra and all the land between the Arabian gulf and French territory
Historic Palestine to be put under international administration
Later amended allowing Britain take exclusive control of Palestine. (Zionists preference)
Administration of Palestine
Chaim Weizmann and the Zionist Commission, 1918. Also pictured: Edwin Samuel, W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, Israel Sieff, Leon Simon, James de Rothschild and Joseph Sprinzak.
Zionist Commission formed in 1918 whilst Palestine was still in Turkish hands.
Weizmann formerly tasked with taking 'any necessary steps required to promote a Jewish homeland.
Samuels was appointed High Commissioner of Palestine in 1920.
He instituted a 'land transfer ordinance' enabling the acquisition of farms and property by Zionists. Ottoman laws enabling Arabs to cultivate waste land were repealed.
Britain agreed to allow 16500 Jewish settlers into Palestine per year.
1922: Britain gives The World Zionist Organization the mandate to administer Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine. This immigration and settlement was funded by American Jews.
Britain gave the Zionist communities greater representation in power than the more numerous Arabs (then 80% of the population), negating the democratic principles.
Jewish Agency
Jewish Agency headquarters, Jerusalem
Jewish Agency had been operating since 1920, but was formerly set up in 1929 to protect the rights of the Jews in Palestine. It became their goal to establish an exclusively Jewish state, and evidentially turned against the British who were seen as an obstacle by limiting Jewish immigration.
There was no parallel organisation to oversee Palestinian interests.
The Jewish Agency was in control of the Haganah, a paramilitary group formed to protect the settler colonies.
It also secretly supported the ruthless campaigns of other, more extreme, Zionist terrorist gangs against the British, such as the blowing up of the King David Hotel, the British Headquarters in Jerusalem, 90 people were killed.
The final push for the British came with the hanging of two British sergeants, their booby trapped bodies left dangling from a tree.
Jewish Militias
Haganah: Founded in 1920 as the armed wing of the Jewish Agency to protect Jewish Settlements. Received clandestine support from Poland. Initially moderate, in 1941 it formed The Palmach, an elite fighting force.
Irgun: Founded in 1931 as it thought the Haganah was too moderate. A terrorist militia believing force – against the Arabs and the British- was necessary to achieve a Jewish State. Led by Menachem Begin (became PM of Israel in 1977).
Lehi (Stern Gang): Founded 1940. Split from the Irgun to continue fighting the British during WW2. Initially sought an alliance between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (“the lesser enemy to the Jews”). Assassinated Lord Moyne (British Minister) and later Folke Bernardotte (UN Mediator). One of its leaders, Yitzhak Shamir, became PM for Israel in 1983 and 1986.
Irgun and Lehi were responsible for the Massacre in Deir Yassin, and countless other terrorist attacks to forcibly expel Palestinians.
Haganah poster from the 1940s
Arab Uprisings
The expulsion of Palestinians from Jewish purchased land, their denial of employment and the favourable treatment of Jewish immigrants, led to the Arab uprisings in 1929 and 1936.
The British brutally put down the revolts, killing or arresting key leaders and fighters, giving the Jewish forces superiority.
Air strikes were ordered against Arab rioters. Churchill recruited auxiliary police that had been stationed in Ireland, who were known for their brutality.
In contrast, the British allowed the Zionists to build an efficient military organisation.
These forces turned against the British after the 1939 Peel Commission gave Arabs de facto control over immigration.
Zionists were also able to carve out an independent enclave for itself as the infrastructure for a future Zionist State.
The Peel Commission and Report
Appointed in 1936 to investigate the causes of unrest in Mandatory Palestine following a six months strike.
Concluded the Palestinian Mandate was unworkable.
Recommended a two-state solution: one Arab, one Jewish, because of the promises made to both Arabs and Jews during the First World War.
The Arabs opposed the partition plan and called for an independent Palestinian State “with protection of all legitimate Jewish rights and safeguarding of reasonable British interests”.
Demanded cessation of all Jewish immigration and land purchases
The Zionists were in disagreement as whether to accept the plan.
Lord Peel, 1936
1939 White Paper on the
Future of Palestine
The paper called for the establishment of a Jewish national home in an independent Palestinian state within 10 years, rejecting the idea of partitioning Palestine.
It also limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 for 5 years, and ruled that further immigration was to be determined by the Arab majority
Restrictions were put on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs.
Opposition from Zionists extremists led to attacks on the British.
Failure to resolve the conflicting interests and growing violence from both sides led to the British turning the Palestine issue over to the UN.
The Partition Resolution 1947
UNSCOP (3 September 1947; see green line) and UN Ad Hoc Committee (25 November 1947) partition plans. The UN Ad Hoc Committee proposal was voted on in the resolution.
In April 1947 Britain requested that the question of Palestine be put before the United Nations.
In November 1947, after intense pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union, the United Nations voted for the creation of a Jewish state within a partitioned Palestine. (UN Resolution 181)
The U.N. Partition Plan offered 52% of the land to the Jews who made up one third of the population and 48% to the Palestinians who made up two thirds of the population. An area around Jerusalem was to remain under international control.
The Zionists agreed in the sure knowledge that the Palestinians were bound to oppose their own dispossession. Britain terminated its mandate on May 15th 1948.
1947 Partition Plan – UN Resolution 181
Only a recommendation
Passed by the UN GA, not endorsed by UN SC.
UN GA had no authority to partition. It was outside the competence of the Assembly, especially on race and religion grounds.
USA blackmailed dozens of countries to support
Jewish Agency budgeted $1billion for its own bribery campaign
Zionists bugged the rooms of UNSCOP
Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Events Leading to 1948 War
The evidence of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, which followed British withdrawal, comes from Israel itself. Israeli archives opened in 1978 (30 years after the events) gave historians the opportunity to revise the official version of events.
The Palestinians did not flee on the orders of their leaders, but as a result of deliberate terror perpetrated against them by the Zionist militias. Plan Dalet was the master plan for the seizure of most of Palestine.
On the 9th April 1948, the combined forces of the Irgun and Stern gangs attacked the peaceful village of Deir Yassin, whilst its inhabitants were asleep. They massacred 254 people (2/3 of the inhabitants). This was weeks BEFORE Israel was created when the Arabs attacked.
Bullet-riddled cacti are seen in Deir Yassin, where Palestinians were massacred by Irgun-Stern raiders, April 1948 [AP Photo]
By May 15th 1948 4440,000 - half the total number of refugees - had already been forcibly expelled from their country from 220 towns and villages.
Palestinians in 1948, five months after the creation of Israel, leaving a village in the Galilee [Reuters]
Israeli Military Operations INSIDE UN Proposed Jewish State From Dec. 1947 To May 1948
The Ethnic Cleansing
Started Before the War
Israel's Declaration of Independence May 14th 1948 UN GA Resolution 243 accepted Israel as a member of the UN
This is cited as Israel's right to exist.
However, Israel was accepted into UN on condition it accepted Palestinian refugees right to return (UN Resolution 191- 14th May 1948). It has never honoured this commitment.
The Palestinian population (still a sizeable majority were not consulted.
The Resolution ignored the rights of the Palestinians enshrined in international law and as made specific in the Balfour Declarations
After the Armistice Agreements in 1949, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 73, in effect recognising Israel .
The original document of Israel's Declaration of Independence
First Arab- Israeli War 1948
On May 15th 1948, the day Jews declared the independent State of Israel, the Arab armies attacked. There had already been fighting between Jewish terrorist groups and Palestinian fighters with support from volunteers from neighbouring countries.
In spite of UN negotiated ceasefires, fighting continued until the formal armistice agreements in Feb 1949, when 'The Green Line' was established. Israel gained territory the UN had granted to Palestine. Egypt and Jordan retained control over Gaza and the West Bank respectively, until the 1967 'Six Day War'.
Land Control after 1948 War
Key:
White: Zionists control (78% of Land)
Green: Palestinian control (22% of Land)
Nakba (Catastrophe)
Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state.
More than 750,000 Palestinian were forcibly expelled from their homeland by Zionist militia in 1948
Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000
Arab refugees, mostly women and children, from a village near Haifa begin a three mile hike carrying large bundles of personal possessions to the Arab lines in Tulkarim, West Bank, on June 26, 1948. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres.
Palestinians being expelled from Haifa at gunpoint, April 1948
Israeli Massacres in Palestine and Lebanon
THE KING DAVID MASSACRE
QAZAZA MASSACRE
THE SEMIRAMIS HOTEL MASSACRE
THE TANTURA MASSACRE
HOULA MASSACRE
KAFR QASEM MASSACRE
AITHAROUN MASSACRE
ABBASIEH MASSACRE
BEIRUT MASSACRE
SEER AL GARBIAH
JIBAA MASSACRE
AIN AL-HILLWEE MASSACRE
QANA MASSACRE
THE MASSACRE AT BALDAT AL-SHAIKH
BEIT DARAS MASSACRE
SHARAFAT MASSACRE
KHAN YUNIS MASSACRE
THE DAHMASH MOSQUE MASSACRE
SALHA MASSACRE
THE MASSACRE IN GAZA CITY
KAWNIN MASSACRE
ADLOUN MASSACRE
SABRA AND SHATILA MASSACRE
MAARAKA MASSACRES
YOHMOR MASSACRE
OYON QARA MASSACRE
THE IBRAHIMI MOSQUE MASSACRE
NABATIYEH (SCHOOL BUS) MASSACRE
TRQUMIA MASSACRE
YEHIDA MASSACRE
THE MASSACRE AT DAIR YASIN
JANTA MASSACRE
HANIN MASSACRE
SAIDA MASSACRE
THE MASSACRE AT QIBYA
J IBSHEET MASSACRE
ZRARIAH MASSACRE
TIRI MASSACRE
HOMEEN AL-TAHTA MASSACRE
AL-NAHER AL-BARED MASSACRE
SIDDIQINE MASSACRE
THE JABALIA MASSACRE
MNSURIAH MASSACRE
ARAMTA MASSACRE
24 OF JUNE 1999 MASSACRES
KHISAS MASSACRE
NASER AL-DIN MASSACRE
DAWAYMA MASSACRE
AL-SAMMOU' MASSACRE
BINT JBEIL MASSACRE
FAKHANI MASSACRE
SOHMOR MASSACRE
AL-AQSA MOSQUE MASSACRE
ERETZ CHECKPOINT MASSACRE
THE SOHMOR SECOND MASSACRE
NABATYAIH MASSACRE
WESTERN BEKAA VILLAGES MASSACRE
1948 - 1967
From 1948 to 1967 the Zionist leaders continued their war crimes and crimes against humanity to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. They committed these according to a carefully designed and calculated policy.
The policy was one of deliberate acts of Israeli provocation, intended to generate Arab hostility and thus to create pretexts for armed action and territorial expansion.
The high level of tension between Israel and its neighbours lead to Israel’s, so called, pre-emptive attack on Egypt.
In the six-day war that followed, the Zionists occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip (They now held 100% of Historic Palestine).
They also captured the Sinai of Egypt and the Golan Heights of Syria.
1967 'Six Day' War
Zionist leaders never accepted that 1948 Armistice (Green Line) Border to be permanent.
They had plans to annex the West Bank and how they would rule the lives of millions of Palestinians.
The Arab countries moved their armies to the borders in anticipation.
Israel started the 1967 war by assaulting the Egyptian air force on the ground.
The war ended in 6 days with a complete Israeli victory.
It was the fulfilment of the plan to occupy the whole of historic Palestine.
Six-Day War in Gaza Israeli armored troop unit entering Gaza during the Six-Day War, June 6, 1967.
The Occupation, Colonisation and Construction of illegal Israeli settlements
“There is no Zionism, colonialisation, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.”
“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours...Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”
Around 220,000 Israelis now live in East Jerusalem. Combined with the over 500,000 settlers in the West Bank, about 720,000 Israelis now live beyond the country's 1967 borders. That's roughly 10 percent of Israel's 7 million Jewish citizens.
Palestinians have a right to Statehood
Palestinians have a right of self determination under international law. Israel has an obligation to respect this. Endorsed by the International Court of Justice.
An occupying power may not annex territory that it has occupied, neither in whole or in part.
The maximum extent of sovereignty territory of the state of Israel under international law is the pre-1967 border.
Palestine already exists as a sovereign state and is entitled to UN recognition. It fulfils the requirements for statehood, as defined under Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention, which is international law:
(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government;
(d) capacity to enter into relations with other states.