“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 facili-
tate the achievement of the 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,
(Signed) Arthur James Balfour
SOURCE:Library of Congress, Foreign Affairs Division,A Select Chronology and Background Documents
Relating to the Middle East: [Prepared for the] Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 2nd rev.
ed. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975), 136.Mandate for Palestine
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
Immediately after World War I, the division of the lands of the Ottoman Empire—
which had collapsed in all but name—stood as one of the most difficult tasks facing
the victorious Allies. In the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, Britain and France had
already settled on a basic formula for dividing the Arabic-speaking portions of the
empire between them, and in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain had advocated
that Palestine become a “national home” for the Jews. It would take another three
years of diplomacy and political maneuvering after the war before the European pow-
ers would gain official control of the lands of the Middle East (Sykes-Picot Agreement,
p. 14; Balfour Declaration, p. 24).
Britain had placed Palestine under military rule following Gen. Edmund Allenby’s
capture of Jerusalem in December 1917. After a violent riot between Arabs and Jews
in Jerusalem in April 1920, London installed a civil administration headed by Herbert
Samuel, one of Britain’s most senior Jewish politicians. The violence in Jerusalem coin-
cided with (and may have been intended, in part, to influence) an international con-
ference held in the Italian resort town of San Remo. One of several conferences held
to settle the details of postwar peace agreements, the San Remo meeting dealt with
the assigning of “mandates” to European powers for governing the remnants of the
Ottoman Empire. The delegates essentially implemented the agreements that Britain
and France already had reached between themselves: Britain would govern Palestine
FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST 25