Britain Palestine Project
Peace with justice, security and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians
It is no exaggeration that the history of Israel/Palestine for the last hundred years has turned on the seminal Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Loved and loathed in equal measure, this was the letter that changed the future. The following extract of the Balfour Declaration from the ‘Companion Guide’ to the Balfour Project film, ‘Britain…
On November 9th 1917 the Times published the minutes of the 4 War Cabinet meetings where, what became known as the Balfour Declaration, was discussed. They had before them the document produced by the Zionist Organisation on July 18th 1917 and other correspondence. Official Zionist Formula, 18 July 1917 H. M. Government, after considering the…
A one day conference exploring the different legacies of the Balfour Declaration and how a greater understanding of history can contribute to justice and peace in the Middle East today was held in Winchester University on May 18th 2013. Over 50 people gathered in the Stripe Theatre. They represented a wide range of opinions from…
Anthony Nutting resigned from Anthony Eden’s government when he found Eden was going into Suez. Writing around 1975, he reflects on Doreen Ingram’s book “The Palestine Papers: 1917-1922: Seeds of Conflict”. The papers in this book made clear that during and after the First World War British Government ministers and officials had intentionally rather than…
Zionism, said Edwin Montagu, seemed to him “a mischievous political creed, untenable by any patriotic citizens of the United Kingdom.” These words appeared in his memorandum, as Secretary of State for India, submitted to the British War Cabinet, in August, 1917. At that time, the Foreign Secretary, Arthur J.Balfour, and Lord Rothschild, a leader of…
The War Cabinet (WW1) The creation of the War Cabinet undertook the supreme direction of the war effort. It was composed of David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, Andrew Bonar Law, Lord Nathaniel Curzon, Alfred Milner, Arthur Henderson and Sir Maurice Hankey (its Secretary). Mark Sykes and Leopold Amery were also secretaries.
Occasionally there are topics that have been written about at such length that it helps to clear the air, or to establish the vantage point from which I intend to consider my subject. My aim therefore is to take a fresh look at the Balfour Declaration in the light of recent scholarship. What I propose…