I read in Al-Hayat, on the occasion of the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their own country, many articles referencing the infamous Balfour Declaration. So today, I want to give a broader picture of the policy pursed by the British Mandate on Palestine. The Balfour Declaration was issued on November 2, 1917. The document was a letter sent by then British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild, which stated: His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine 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 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 This pledge took place on the back of the First Zionist Congress in Basel and the publication of The Jewish State, Theodor Herzl's book, in 1896. The above is well-documented and widely known. But since my university education covered history, as well as political science and Arabic literature, I want to add to the above a very important piece of information without which coverage of the issue would not be complete. On May 23, 1939, with war in Europe around the corner, the government of Neville Chamberlain issued what became known as the White Paper of 1939. The Paper was presented by Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, and was approved by the parliament with a majority of 268 to 179 votes. The paper is lengthy, so I will limit myself to the first section out of the three sections that make up the paper: First section: The Constitution: It stated that with over 450,000 Jews having now settled in the mandate (Palestine), the Balfour Declaration about "a national home for the Jewish people" had been met and called for an independent Palestine established within 10 years, governed jointly by Arabs and Jews: His Majesty's Government believe that the framers of the Mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country. [...] His Majesty's Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State. They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will. The objective of His Majesty's Government is the establishment within 10 years of an independent Palestine State in such treaty relations with the United Kingdom as will provide satisfactorily for the commercial and strategic requirements of both countries in the future. [..] The independent State should be one in which Arabs and Jews share government in such a way as to ensure that the essential interests of each community are safeguarded. The second section of the White Paper addresses immigration, which it specifies at 75 thousand Jewish immigrants to Palestine in ten years, beginning in April 1939. The third section deals with territory, and prohibits the sale of land to Jews in certain areas in Palestine and limits it in other areas. Balfour made a pledge of someone who does not own the land to someone who is not entitled to the land. The White Paper sought to rectify that, not because Britain saw the error of its ways and the injustice it visited upon the Palestinians and had an awakening of the conscience, but because it understood that while Jews were certainly on its side in the event of war with Nazi Germany, it had to woo the independent Arab states like Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia to be on its side in any war to come. This is the whole picture of the Declaration and the Paper. [email protected]
