Politics and diplomacy
Balfour Declaration
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour's letter to Lord Rothschild of 2 November 1917, in which the government backed the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
It was the first public endorsement of Zionism by a great power. Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow, who came from the Polish lands, had lobbied for it. Lloyd George's government hoped for propaganda gains in Russia and America and for protection of the Suez Canal. The text stipulated that nothing should prejudice the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights of Jews in other countries.
The declaration clashed with the promises made to the Arabs and with the Sykes–Picot Agreement. In 1922 its wording was written into the League of Nations mandate for Palestine entrusted to Britain. It became one of the founding documents of the State of Israel and at the same time one of the roots of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
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