The Balfour Declaration, Palestine and Israel

Written by: Ibrahim Ibrash
The Balfour Declaration, the promise made by Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary on November 2, 1917, to the Jewish millionaire Rothschild, to grant the Jews a state in Palestine, was the second stage for the establishment of the Zionist project after the first Zionist conference in Basel, Switzerland, on the twenty-ninth of August 1897, which The goal of the Zionist movement was to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine.

The text of the promise was: "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may detract from the civil and religious rights enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities residing in Palestine, nor the rights or political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

We will not go into here the circumstances of the issuance of this promise, its legitimacy, its parties, and the fact that it was issued in the midst of World War I, when Britain needed financial support for the Jews and their scientific expertise in the war efforts, in addition to getting rid of the Jews in Europe who were unacceptable, etc., and I will focus in my article on dismantling the promise from Where the borders of the state granted by the promise to the Jews, and in this context we make the following observations:

The first: The promise did not say that Palestine is the national home of the Jews, but rather the text was clear when it said that a national home would be established for the Jews (in Palestine). The Balfour Declaration, where the General Assembly of the United Nations decided in November 1947 to divide Palestine into two states, with Israel based on an area of 55%, and the rest on which an Arab state for the indigenous population would be established.

Second: Although the promise denies the existence of the original Palestinian people, as it talked about the mere existence of minorities that have civil and religious rights, Britain’s approval of the partition decision and the United Nations’ recognition of partition means that in Palestine there is a people other than the Jews who have political rights and not just civil and religious rights. Thus, the text of the Balfour Declaration obligating Israel to protect civil and religious rights pertains to the Palestinians inside the State of Israel, which was approved by the partition decision, while the rights of the Palestinian people in the rest of the Palestinian territories are subject to the resolutions of international legitimacy that clearly speak of the right of the Palestinian people to determine their political destiny and their right to an independent state.

Third: Had it not been for the Balfour Declaration that Britain imposed on the League of Nations and made it part of the British mandate deed over Palestine, and if the Western, especially British and American support for the Zionist project had not continued, then this racist Zionist entity would not have been and would not have continued to this day and to be With this apparent force on him.

Fourth: Despite the occupation of all of Palestine by the Zionists, those whom Arthur Balfour considered a minority - the indigenous Palestinians - represent today more than half of the population of Palestine residing on the land of Palestine, according to the Israeli statistics themselves, in addition to a similar number of them abroad bearing the name of Palestine, and the world recognizes that they are Palestinians are waiting for their return to their land.

Fifth: The land of Palestine, which is supposed to be a state exclusive to the Jews, as the Zionists interpreted the Balfour Declaration, to be shared with them by the Palestinian state, as the United Nations General Assembly voted on 11/29/2012 in favor of granting Palestine - the West Bank and Gaza - the status of a non-member observer state (the resolution was supported by 138 countries 9 countries opposed it, and 41 countries abstained from voting) and that Jerusalem be the capital of the Palestinian state.

In conclusion, the existence of the State of Israel is illegitimate even on one inch of the Arab land of Palestine, just as the Balfour Declaration failed to achieve the goals of the Zionist movement, which was seeking through the promise to erase the Palestinian people and resolve the conflict in Palestine in its favour. The Palestinians today are the descendants of those whom the Balfour Declaration considered They are mere minorities with civil rights who struggle to determine their political destiny and establish their independent Palestinian state.