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Did the Balfour Declaration Launch the Jewish Return to Israel?

(Israel Hayom) Dore Gold - Last year, former Palestinian minister Nabil Shaath wrote an article in the Daily Telegraph attacking Britain for issuing the Balfour Declaration, its famous statement of support for the establishment in the Land of Israel of a national home for the Jewish people. Shaath called the declaration, issued on November 2, 1917, the beginning of "British imperialism" in Palestine. For Shaath, there was no Jewish history in Palestine that needed to be acknowledged. The rise of the Jewish national home, in short, was seen as the product of external manipulations by outside powers, like Britain, and not the result of any authentic yearning of the Jews themselves. What became the Balfour Declaration went through a number of drafts. The original language of the declaration that was approved by the British Foreign Office and Prime Minister Lloyd George on September 19, 1917, specifically stated that Britain accepted the principle that "Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of the Jewish people." Use of the term "reconstitute" meant that the land was once their homeland before and should now be restored to them. It meant that the Jews had historical rights. This original formula had been approved by President Woodrow Wilson. In any case, the Balfour Declaration was basically a statement of British policy; it did not establish legal rights. This first occurred with the meeting of the victorious allied powers at San Remo, Italy, in 1920, where they adopted the Balfour Declaration in an international agreement. Then in 1922, 51 members of the League of Nations approved the document for the Palestine Mandate, which stated: "recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." The Balfour Declaration reflected a historical trend that was already underway, but it did not launch the Jewish return to the Land of Israel. The writer, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2013-10-25 00:00:00
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