Balfour Declaration (1917): Britain's Pledge on a Jewish Homeland

The Balfour Declaration was a statement issued by the British government on 2 November 1917, in the form of a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, declaring support for “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Made while British forces were fighting the Ottoman Empire for control of the region, it became the foundation of British policy under the Mandate and remains one of the most debated documents in the history of the modern Middle East.

The text

The declaration is only 67 words long. Its key sentence reads:

“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.”

The phrase “national home” was deliberately vague. It did not say “state”, nor did it define borders. The text also did not name the Arab majority of Palestine, referring to them only as “existing non-Jewish communities”.

Background

Modern political Zionism, the movement for a Jewish homeland, had grown since Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist Organization in 1897. Jewish immigration to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, increased in the decades before the First World War, but Jews remained a small minority. Around 1917 they made up less than a tenth of a population usually estimated at roughly 700,000.

When the Ottoman Empire joined the war on Germany’s side in late 1914, the future of its Arab provinces became a question for the Allies. Britain made several overlapping commitments. In the McMahon–Hussein correspondence of 1915–1916, it encouraged Sharif Hussein of Mecca to lead an Arab Revolt in return for support for Arab independence, with disputed exceptions. In the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, Britain and France divided the region into spheres of influence, with Palestine largely under international administration.

In Britain, the chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, based in Manchester, built relationships with leading politicians, including David Lloyd George and Balfour. Lloyd George became prime minister in December 1916, and his government was more receptive to Zionist proposals.

Drafting and approval

Zionist leaders, including Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow, submitted a draft in July 1917 asking Britain to recognise Palestine as the national home of the Jewish people. The cabinet discussed several revised versions over the summer and autumn.

Opposition came from Edwin Montagu, Secretary of State for India and the only Jewish member of the cabinet, who feared that recognising a Jewish nation would undermine the position of Jews as citizens in Britain and elsewhere. The final clause protecting “the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country” was added partly in response. Lord Curzon raised doubts about whether Palestine could support large-scale settlement given its existing population.

The War Cabinet approved the final wording on 31 October 1917. Balfour signed the letter on 2 November and sent it to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a prominent figure in British Jewry, asking him to pass it to the Zionist Federation. It was published in the press on 9 November.

Immediate reactions

In Jewish communities in Britain, the United States, Russia and elsewhere, the declaration was greeted with public celebrations, and it greatly strengthened the Zionist movement. Other Jews, especially those who saw themselves primarily as citizens of their own countries, remained opposed or cautious.

In Palestine itself, news spread slowly under wartime conditions, and the south was only then being occupied by British forces. Arab notables soon voiced concern about what the policy would mean for the majority population. In 1918 a Zionist Commission led by Weizmann travelled to Palestine, and in January 1919 Weizmann and the Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein, signed an agreement on cooperation, which Faisal made conditional on Arab independence being achieved.

Why Britain made the pledge

Historians generally identify several motives. British leaders hoped the declaration would rally Jewish opinion behind the Allies, particularly in the United States, which had just entered the war, and in revolutionary Russia, which seemed close to leaving it. Some of these hopes rested on an exaggerated idea of Jewish political influence.

Strategy also mattered. A British-sponsored presence in Palestine would protect the approaches to the Suez Canal and Egypt and help keep France out of the area. Finally, some leaders, including Balfour and Lloyd George, had a religious and cultural sympathy for the idea of a Jewish return to the Holy Land.

Consequences

British and Commonwealth forces captured Jerusalem in December 1917 (see Fall of Jerusalem) and the rest of Palestine by late 1918. At the San Remo conference in April 1920 the Allied powers assigned Palestine to Britain as a mandate. The League of Nations approved the Mandate for Palestine on 24 July 1922; its preamble repeated the declaration’s wording and made Britain responsible for putting it into effect.

Under the Mandate, Jewish immigration and land purchase increased, and Jewish institutions developed. Arab opposition grew, leading to riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929 and a major Arab revolt in 1936–1939. Britain tried to balance its commitments in a series of policy statements, including the Churchill White Paper of 1922 and the White Paper of 1939, which sharply limited Jewish immigration.

The conflict between the two national movements eventually led Britain to hand the question to the United Nations. The UN partition plan of 1947 was followed by the end of the Mandate and the declaration of the State of Israel in May 1948.

Key people

• Arthur James Balfour (1848–1930): former prime minister and Foreign Secretary from 1916 to 1919, who signed the letter.
• Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952): Zionist leader and scientist, later the first president of Israel.
• Walter Rothschild (1868–1937): banker and zoologist, the letter’s addressee.
• David Lloyd George (1863–1945): prime minister who strongly supported the policy.
• Edwin Montagu (1879–1924): cabinet minister who opposed it.

Legacy

The Balfour Declaration is remembered in sharply different ways. For many Jews and Israelis it was a landmark international recognition of Jewish national aspirations. For many Palestinians and Arabs it is seen as a promise made by a foreign power about a land where they formed the great majority, without their consent. Historians also debate how far Britain’s various wartime promises were truly contradictory.

The original letter is held by the British Library. Its centenary in November 2017 was marked by official events in Britain and Israel and by protests elsewhere.

Timeline

• 1915–1916: The McMahon–Hussein correspondence discusses Arab independence.
• 1916, May: The Sykes–Picot Agreement divides Ottoman Arab lands into British and French spheres.
• 1917, July: Zionist leaders submit a draft declaration to the British government.
• 1917, 31 October: The War Cabinet approves the final text.
• 1917, 2 November: Balfour signs the letter to Lord Rothschild.
• 1917, 9 November: The declaration is published in the press.
• 1917, 9 December: Jerusalem surrenders to British forces.
• 1922, 24 July: The League of Nations approves the Mandate for Palestine, incorporating the declaration.

Why it matters

In a single sentence, the Balfour Declaration committed a great power to a Jewish national home in Palestine while promising to protect the rights of its existing population. The tension between those two promises shaped the history of the Mandate and continues to echo in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.