6/9/2023 0 Comments Balfour declaration![]() The Sykes-Picot agreement was a secret 1916 agreement between the British Empire and the French Republic. The British and the French had already plans for the Middle East. However, in 1918, the British army and Empire forces invaded Palestine and occupied that region Furthermore, the British had promised a land that they had not even occupied and was at present still in the control of the Turks. Many Arabs had rebelled against the Ottomans and were loyal allies of the United Kingdom and France The British had promised Palestine or the Holy Land to both the Jews and the Arabs. The western allies had promised the Arabs populations a Pan-Arab state in the Middle East including Palestine if they rebelled against their Ottoman overlords. There was a problem, previously the British and their French allies had entered an alliance with the Arabs. They saw a Jewish homeland as a British ‘protectorate’, that would be an ally and be dependent on them and this would safeguard the Empire’s position in the Middle East. ![]() There were those in Britain who argued that Jewish emigration to Palestine would reinforce the British position in the Middle East in the aftermath of the war. Many Jews especially in Eastern Europe and Russia were persecuted and often the targets of anti- Semitic violence. In the view of the Zionists only a Jewish homeland could offer Europe’s Jews protection and equality. There were many in the British elite who were sympathetic to the idea of a Jewish homeland. The declaration was a result of negotiations between those sympathetic to the cause of a Jewish homeland Zionists and the British government. The document’s inherent contradictions were not long on observers at the time. The Declaration also recognized the rights of the Palestinian people who already lived in the territory. The Declaration in effect assigned territory that was still part of the Ottoman Empire to the Jews for their new homeland. The declaration stated that ‘’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.’’ The document committed the British Empire to a ‘’Jewish national home.’’. It was first sent to Lord Rothschild of the banking family and the Zionist Association of Great Britain and was published the following day in the press. The Balfour Declaration was a British government document that was drawn up by the Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour in 1917. Arab demonstrators being arrested during the Arab Revolt
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