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On this day in 1917, Britain's Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, gave formal backing for the creation of a Zionist state on Palestinian land. This is the Israeli state's origin story, a letter that is three sentences long and written in London.
For Britain, the zionist colonialism represented a way to police the Middle East more efficiently and enforce Europe's colonial interests. While for anti-Semites like Balfour, creating a "Jewish" state, was an efficient way to expel Jews from Europe.
In 1905 Balfour himself introduced the anti-Semitic 'Aliens Act' to crackdown on Jewish immigration into Britain. Huge numbers of Jews were seeking refuge from the pogroms in Tsarist Russia, and Balfour closed the door.
Balfour's declaration also came at a time of fierce debate within the Jewish movement. On one side were zionists who believed it was futile to fight anti-semitism in Europe and so the solution was to create a Jewish state with backing of imperialism.
On the other side, were left-wing Jews, such as the Socialist Bund, who believed that Jews should stay in their respective countries and fight to assert their political rights. They opposed the colonization of Palestine and supported resistance against it.
The Balfour Declaration called on the Zionist colonisers to respect others, saying, "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".
In reality, Britain gave the colonists free-reign to expel Palestinians. Zionist leader Chaim Weizman said, "The declaration implies that we have been given the opportunity to become masters”.
When there was an anti-colonial revolt in the 1930s, the Zionist Haganah paramilitaries were incorporated into the British Army to help crush the revolt, the Haganah took advantage to expel Palestinians off their land, with the violent tactics that would later be used in the Nakba.
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#Colonialism #Palestine #Israel