The Balfour Declaration - 1917/1918
Israeli NarrativeUp until the early 1900s, the number of Jews residing in Palestine was small. The rise of the Zionist movement borrowed from a popular phrase, “People without a land and a land without a people” to establish Palestine as the national home for the Jews. The Balfour Declaration supported the opening of Palestine to all Jews from every land. In doing so, it also stated that leaders “…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."[1] Although this movement did not have the full support of the smaller Jewish community already living in Palestine, there was significant international support and popularity of the Zionist movement and so Jews began to migrate, especially after WWI into the British mandate of Palestine. [2] They entrusted them to assist with the “reconstituting their national home in that country.” [3] Many Jewish settlements and Zionist agricultural developments settled in Palestine and the Jewish presence increased dramatically as they flourished economically, socially, educationally and religiously.
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Palestinian NarrativeZionist leaders toiled with Argentina or Palestine as their national home for Jews, and under the Sykes-Picot agreements of 1916 they were able to work a deal with Great Britain for Palestine to be established as the national home. From its initial reading, the Balfour Declaration neglects any reference to the political rights of non-Jewish Palestinian communities, which represented nearly 90% of the population during that time. [4] After WWI, the Jews began to migrate from all around the world. Many Jewish settlements and Zionist agricultural developments settled in Palestine, and the Jewish presence increased dramatically as they flourished economically, socially, educationally and religiously. Jewish communities had international support through the help of large international organizations like The World Zionist Organization. [5] In a short amount of time, the Jewish population grew rapidly, spreading across Palestinian land, but at the expense of both the Palestinian people, and their culture. They were losing their land and their heritage, and were being treated with very little respect for humanity.
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