Balfour Declaration Of Independence

For ages the Jewish population did not have a place to call home. They had been wandering around deserts, were once slaves in Egypt, but didn’t have any land to their name. Following the Holocaust, after many Jews had been persecuted by Hitler and the Nazis, a good portion of the overall amount of Jews in the world let alone Europe had been exterminated. As a result, Harry Truman and the UN suggested Israel, a homeland for the Jews. Tensions had been growing throughout the beginning of the 20th Century regarding the Palestinian area in the Middle East. This area was off to the side of Asia, near Africa. When the Jews and Arabs were offered part of this land, war broke out and still continues today. Even though a war happened as a result

By 1918 both Jews and Arabs believed that they had the right to rule themselves in their own land – Palestine. However, at the end of war Britain regretted to give independence both Arabs and Jewish. Palestine became a territory governed by Britain. Increased Jewish immigration led to the worsening of the relations between communities. Jews were purchasing land and would not employ Arab workers, who may have been working on that land for their whole life.

in 1918 britain aided by the arabs captured palestine from the the ottoman turks but britain had now made too many promises that hey couldn't keep . Many Arabs opposed British troops because of England's failure to fulfill its promise and were also getting angry about the increase of jewish migrating to palestine. Arabs became concerned that Jewish immigration would threaten their position in Palestine which lead to large scale attacks on the jews. At the time of Hitler's dictatorship in Germany, Jewish immigration increased dramatically in 1933. An Arab revolt started which Britain suppressed with the help of Zionist militias. Zionist settlements climaxed in 1936. In 1947, Britain forbid Jewish refugees from nazi concentration camps to land in Palestine to prevent war between Jews and Arabs, which resulted in worldwide criticism of Britain. Britain withdrew itself from the situation handing over the mandate over Palestine, leaving the United Nations to deal with the situation. The United Nations proposed that Palestine was divided into two states, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews, however the Arabs opposed this idea claiming that the UN plan allotted too much territory to the Jews. the arabs thought it was unfair that the jews should get more land because the arabs were by far the larger population but because of the holocaust the was a lot of sympathy for the jews and this may be why the got more land.

nations voted that the land would be split consisting of one half for the Jews and the other half for the Palestinians.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire began to crumble, with skirmishes breaking out throughout the Middle East. During this turbulent time, Great Britain saw an opportunity to take advantage of Arabs as well as the land that they controlled. In some cases, their policies and treaties actually aimed to help specific groups like when they drew up the Balfour Declaration, supporting the Jews receiving Palestine as a sacred land. However, some of the documents drawn up during this period were disguised as giving aid to Arabs while the British used the treaties to gain political influence in Arabia.

The Balfour declaration, published on November 2nd, 1917 perfectly encapsulates the Jewish struggle of assimilation. This declaration released by the British promised the Jews a state in Palestine. This was very controversial and upset many people. However the British deemed it necessary. Why, you might ask?

David Ben-Gurion (the head of the world Zionist Organization) made Israel a nation-state, in may of 1948. The jews had a goal to create a homeland in the Palestine area for many years, this goal grew after WW2. The violence towards the Jewish in WW2, the united nations decided what the jews had control of. They decided that Palestine was going to be split into sections, one for the jews, one for the Arabs, and another for the jerusalem and bethlehem. A vote was taken, and soon everyone signed it. The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was resulted in Israel's independence. The war was between the Arabs and israel. There was tension between the jews and the muslim Arab for control of “their” land. The dividing of Palestine caused the tension to end and civil war erupted. This caused many palestine Arabs to flee and become refugees and 700 000 jews flee to Israel, because they were expelled from their country. Israel's independence caused tension to form and created more problems for the

Ever since Zionists (an extremist part of the Jewish population) immigrated to Palestine In the late 1800s, violence has plagued the region. The sheer numbers of Zionists moving in to Palestine scared the Arab population already living there, and fighting began. In an attempt to stop the violence spreading through Palestine, the United Nations stepped in and divided the nation into two separate states, one for the Jewish residents, and one for the Arab population. The dividing of the nations made the Arab people feel cheated, due to a larger amount of land being given to the Jewish people, even though there were less of them. Britain, which had been in control of the nation, quickly withdrew after the separation.

When Harry Truman became President, the last thing on his mind was creating a viable solution to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. WW II had not ended in Europe, the world's first nuclear weapon was being created, and tensions were rising with the Cold War. In addition to these developing problems, few around the world saw what would be the longest lasting conflict of them all. It was this problem that Truman ultimately failed at resolving. Right before the end of World War I, Britain passed what soon to be called the Balfour Declaration. It was this document that would stir up trouble for decades to come. Right before the start of World War II, the League of Nations entrusted Britain with the Mandate of Palestine.After

Emphasising in strong terms that Arab and Jews were to be treated equally. It recommended that Jewish immigration be greatly reduced because there was not enough Arab land and because of the high unemployment among the Arab community. Britain issued this policy with the intention of reducing the escalated conflict between the Arab and Jewish community. Tom Segev reinforced this intention as he stated "From the British, linking immigration to the Arabs as well as the Jewish economy and making a statement of equal support for Palestinian Arabs was a logical move in terms of reducing the conflict. Yet within a few months the new policy had disappeared and the Zionists had won again". This British policy had initially pleased the Arabs however with the immediate criticism to this paper from pro Zionists Chaim Weizmann, Britain had buckled under the pressure form the pro Zionists protests and did not follow through on any of the recommendations put forward in the White paper. This illustrates how Britain was biased towards the Jewish community in Palestine and how they could not make a decision/ that would deal with the conflict between the Jewish communities and the

A popular and most recent debate has been whether Israel should exist as a state. Currently, Israel is the only country in the world that has a relatively extensive Jewish population. More recently, Israel has been combatting against Palestinian soldiers in Gaza to prevent attacks on Israel coming from the Palestinian Government. This war has gone on for quite some time now; for years, actually. But how did this conflict develop? It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

Ninety nine years ago on November 2, 1917, Lord Balfour, Foreign Secretary of the British Government, wrote a letter that stated the British support to facilitate a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. This letter, the Balfour Declaration, is viewed as one of the founding documents of the State of Israel that was birthed some years later in 1948. However, the foundation of the formation of the State of Israel was not an easy task. It is important to understand the historical context to the Balfour Declaration, but more importantly, whether it is considered a valid document under international law.

The General Assembly of the UN adopted the partition plan, but the UN Security Council never enforced the plan. After Britain left Palestine, fighting between Arabs and Jews immediately broke out (ibid.; 82-83).

In 1948, the British mandate announced their intentions to terminate its mandate in Palestine due to the conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews. Britain faced difficulties trying to bring peace to Palestine. After the British mandate left Palestine, the Jewish people declared the establishment of a Jewish state (Israel). On the same day, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq intervened and this marked the first Arab-Israeli war. After this war, over 800,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees as a result of the independence of Israel. Also, Jews in the Arab countries were made to abandon their properties and flee.

The decision on the Mandate did not take into account the wishes of the people of Palestine, despite the Covenant's requirements that "the wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory". This assumed special significance because, almost five years before receiving the mandate from the League of Nations, the British Government had given commitments to the Zionist Organization regarding the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, for which Zionist leaders had pressed a claim of "historical connection" since their ancestors had lived in Palestine two thousand years earlier before dispersing in the "Diaspora". During the period of the Mandate, the Zionist Organization worked to secure the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The indigenous people of Palestine, whose forefathers had inhabited the land for virtually the two preceding millennia, felt this design to be a violation of their natural and inalienable rights. They also viewed it as an infringement of assurances of independence given by the Allied Powers to Arab leaders in return for their support during the war.