Astounding Facts Most People Don’t Know About Israel: 1
The only parts of the Balfour Declaration that remain unfulfilled are those relating to the Jewish people
As well as the abundant and obsessively hostile propaganda (aka lies) about Israel that surges across social platforms globally, there is a woeful lack of truthful, factual information about that small country, the world's only Jewish state. This series of articles is offered as a modest contribution to the growing body of literature that seeks to redress the balance.
Fact 1. The only parts of the Balfour Declaration that remain unfulfilled are those relating to the Jewish people
You may have heard of the Balfour Declaration. If you haven't, and want to understand the historical context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, you should certainly read it. If you have heard of it, you may nevertheless have been misled about its content, meaning and implications, or you may not have fully grasped the degree to which it was (or wasn't) implemented. Whatever your level of knowledge on this subject, I offer here a few insights which you may find helpful. These are set out in more detail in a booklet published by the politically non-partisan educational NGO StandWithUs [1].
What was the Balfour Declaration?
On 2nd November 1917, the British War Cabinet issued a statement in the form of a letter from Lord Arthur James Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, an Anglo-Jewish dignitary, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The letter stated that:
“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 Balfour Declaration, as this document became known, was a ground-breaking British government statement that recognised the profound and unbroken historical, religious and cultural connection of the Jewish people to the land from which they had been largely expelled, and destroyed as a sovereign nation, by the Romans some 2,000 years earlier, a land that had been renamed “Palestine” by its conquerors.
Furthermore, the Declaration obligated the British government to use its “best endeavours” – meaning that they would implement all reasonable measures rather than merely offer support in principle – to achieve the objective of the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
The Declaration was incorporated, virtually word for word, in two major international agreements – the San Remo Resolution in 1920 and the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine that was given to the British Government later that year. That eventually led, though a devious and blood-drenched path, to the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948.
Many commentators, including some who are generally sympathetic to Israel, have suggested that the Declaration was the foundation document of the Jewish state, and that its terms were only partially fulfilled in that Jewish aspirations were met while ignoring those of the Arab population of Palestine and the Middle East. Superficially, this is a plausible argument. But it's wrong.
Let's examine the Declaration carefully. It comprised three parts.
The Declaration's first part (the establishment of the Jewish National Home) was technically achieved in 1948 but remains work in progress as so many of Israel’s neighbours – with the collusion of external allies – continue to seek her destruction. Without a strong army and the expenditure of huge resources on defence, Israel simply could not survive. A National Home, whose existence as a sovereign state continues to be challenged and threatened with annihilation, is a violation of the spirit of the Declaration (and, incidentally, a breach of the UN charter). That is a contemporary reality that even Israel's most bitter enemies acknowledge.
The Declaration's second part (the protection of the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish population of Palestine) was rigorously fulfilled through the Israel's Declaration of Independence and the related Basic Laws in Israel. The legal protection of minorities in Israel stands in marked contrast to the position of Jews in Arab states. Although the Declaration did not address Arab national ambitions, those too were granted expression since 22 Arab States were subsequently created. One of these was a Palestinian Arab one, Transjordan, that was brought into being by the British in 1922 in territory that comprised the geographically larger portion of the original Mandatory Palestine – 26 years before Israel declared her independence.
The Declaration's third part (the protection of the status of existing Jewish communities in the diaspora) was entirely ignored throughout the Arab world. On the contrary, Arab governments viciously turned on their Jewish citizens and actively promoted the expulsion of at least 900,000 Jews from countries across the Middle East and North Africa. To this day, none of these countries has accepted responsibility or offered an apology for this large-scale ethnic cleansing, let alone provided even minimal recompense.
Consequently, it is clear that only the second part (relating to Arab rights within Israel) of the Declaration has actually been fully fulfilled. Curiously, that is the only part that most commentators seem to think wasn’t.
The first and third parts – those relating to the Jewish people – have yet to be properly implemented and accepted by Israel's neighbours and by much of the international community.
Surprised? You shouldn't be. As with many of the facts surrounding Israel, reality has been inverted and history rewritten to suit a false narrative. Yet many of Israel's critics are unable or unwilling to recognise this distortion.
That's what happens when preconceptions, rhetoric or prejudice are permitted to cloud evidence-based judgement.
