Almost 1 century later, controversial British document still elicits Palestinian anger and demands for long-overdue apology
News Desk
Few documents in history have caused as much trouble as Britain’s 1917 Balfour Declaration, which this week celebrated its 99th anniversary.
In the declaration, dated Nov. 2, 1917, then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour tells Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild -- a leader of the Zionist movement at the time -- that the British government "views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people".
The government, Balfour goes on to promise, "will use their best endeavors 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…"
The infamous declaration was the result of three years of talks between the British government, Britain’s Jewish community and the International Zionist Organization.
During those talks, the Zionists convinced British officials that their sought-for "national home" in Palestine would not conflict with British interests in the Middle East.
