The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a classified formal statement of policy by the British
government on the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the
aftermath of World War I.
The letter stated the position, agreed at a British Cabinet
meeting on October 31,
1917, that the British
government supported Zionist plans for a National home for the Jewish people
within Palestine with the condition that nothing should be done which
might prejudice the rights
of existing communities there.
The statement was issued through the efforts of Chaim Weizmann
and Nahum Sokolow,
the principal Zionist leaders based in London but, as they had asked for the
reconstitution of Palestine as “the” Jewish national home, the Declaration fell
short of Zionist expectations.[1]
The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with Turkey and the Mandate for Palestine. The declaration was
made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour (Foreign Secretary) to Lord Rothschild (Walter
Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British
Jewish community,
for transmission to the Zionist Federation,
a private Zionist
organization.
The document is kept at the British Library.
Text of the
declaration
The declaration, a typed letter signed in ink by Balfour, reads as follows:
Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's
Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
"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".
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of
the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely
Arthur James
Balfour