A Controversial Anniversary: Balfour's Letter to Lord Rothschild
Today is a historical anniversary for
Britain and Israel. Exactly one century ago, on 2nd November 1917,
the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain, Lord Arthur James
Balfour, issued a letter to Lord Rothschild, a pioneer of Zionism, promising his
government’s commitment to allow the Jewish community--at the time dispersed
all over Europe and beyond--establish a “national home in Palestine.” Palestine
was at that time occupied by British armed forces, while the Second World War
was being fought.
 |
| Theresa May |
In an official dinner tonight in
Westminster, London, British Prime Minister Theresa May will receive her Israeli
counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. In their reciprocal congratulatory speeches the
two heads of government will express, live on TV, their countries’ respective
views on what that declaration really meant at the time—and now.
The content of that simple letter—the
result of a miscalculation by Britain about the influence of the European Jews
on Kaiser’s strategic thinking, according to many historians—has become over
several decades an item of controversy and of bitter disputes among Israelis and
Arabs. London has, in recent decades, systematically been accused of
favouring the Zionist cause to the detriment of the rights of the native
Palestinians.
One must, however, examine the controversy
with historical accuracy, in order to properly appreciate the role of the UK
in the creation of Israel—the final outcome of all this, which is the true root
of hatred in that part of the Middle East. As Jonathan Marcus of the BBC
pointed in an editorial today:
"Analysis: Competing narratives
"There is a huge amount of fuss being made about the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, in part misguided.
"For Balfour, and indeed Britain, did not create a Jewish state. In fact in the years leading up to Israel's independence in 1948, Britain, as the mandatory power, did a good deal to thwart Jewish statehood, torn between the competing claims of Jewish and Palestinian nationalism.
"Much of the current focus on the Balfour Declaration is due to the fact that it supports the competing narratives of the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership.
"For the Israelis it highlights the legitimacy of the Jewish national enterprise, while for Palestinians, it underscores the role of the major powers in helping to create Israel, while - in their view - the legitimate Palestinian aspirations to statehood were ignored or side-lined.
"Thus both sides have a very different interpretation of the declaration's significance - one that serves today's arguments about one of the region's longest unresolved struggles."
***
Lord Balfour’s text corroborates the
analysis put forward by Marcus. Britain cannot be blamed single-handedly for
what happened in 1948 and afterwards. Other ‘great powers’ have been much more
influential in reshaping the Middle East—then, and again now!
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| Lord Balfour (centre). Lord Edmund Allenby (left), Sir Herbert Samuel (right). Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917. Samuel was the first British High Commissioner in Jerusalem (1920-25) |
The European Union, including Britain
while she is still ‘in’, should address the Israelo-Palestinian conflict with
lucidity and fairness, based on historical data and on rational interpretation
of the intention of Balfour when he signed that document. But this is unlikely to
happen. The Union is less united than at any time before, in its 66 years of
existence, as ongoing developments in many aspects witness. The vagueness in
dealing with the Palestinian issue is but a note in the cacophony. It does not
disturb the hearing of the Eurocrats.
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 |
| Lord Balfour's letter of 2nd November 1917 |
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