The letter that led to the founding of Israel | Featured Documentary

[Music] is call [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the z b [Music] the voice of David benan declaring the establishment of the state of Israel in May [Music] 1948 the balfor Declaration was a letter sent by British foreign secretary Arthur balfor to a member of the British House of Lords Lord Rothchild on the 2nd of November [Music] 1917 this letter sent to a leading figure in the British Jewish Community a 100 years ago had repercussions which even its authors cannot have [Music] imagined whatever its real intentions it went on to have a profound impact on the Middle East

and its people and its effects still resonate across the region [Music] today in 1914 these soldiers were fighting on the battlefields of Europe in the first world war the allies Britain France and Russia fought the Central Powers of Germany Austria Hungary and the Ottoman Empire for 4 years but the land and sea war was not the only Battleground muscle was also being flexed behind closed doors as allies conspired how to redraw maps to their own Advantage when the conflict eventually ceased of this area and expand out in this Reg Sir Mark Sykes for the British

and franois Jorge Pico for the French plotted how to divide the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire assuming it would finally fall the syes Pico agreement planned secretly to divide it into French and British spheres of influence France taking most of the Levant Southern Anatolia and the musul area while the British extended their control over the southern Levant expanding Eastward to Bagdad and Basra and all the land between the Arabian Gulf and the French territory historic Palestine then still part of the Ottoman Empire was a bone of contention and would be put under International [Music]

Administration [Music] that I think the British felt that there had not been enough government involvement in concluding the sypo agreement with the French and in that process they had not really Protected Their interests well enough for a post-world War era in which the British Empire would continue to seek to be a dominant force in European Affairs and so really officials across White Hall including Mark syes himself felt it was a bad deal and it's of huge significance that when they're making these discussions Jews and Zionism are not discussed Jews were not to feature in the

new cartography of the Middle East which was to be based on the idea of the Arab Nation Zionism was the movement supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the area it defined as the historic land of Israel the move movement was active in early 20th century London especially because of the persecution of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe Theodore Herzel had founded the Zionist movement in the late 19th century but Jewish people in Western Europe had not rushed to support it because they were integrating quite successfully into society zionists believed that all Jews should

someday return to that country one of the problems was that Palestine belonged to the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman Empire um was not clear that it wanted massive Jewish immigration into Palestine and the British government offered to let Jews move unimpeded in great numbers into Uganda if they wished um but in any event it really didn't happen and it didn't happen because a majority of zionists felt that Herzel was selling them out and that the only place for Jews to move back to or at least conscious Zionist Jews to move back to was Palestine in

this I think Britain began to look on the Zionist movement as a possible partner in justifying a renegotiations of their agreement with the French you see for Britain simply to claim territory against what they' already concluded in an agreement with France could create diplomatic problems for the British but if they were to make a claim to Palestine not out of self interest but in order to advance a great historic ideal of the restoration of the Jewish people to their biblical Homeland that this could justify an adjustment of the terms of syes Pico in a way

that the French would accept the British wanted somehow uh and and more and more increasingly they felt that the Jews held the key to winning the war um and so they had to figure out how to bribe the Jews to support them Sir Mark Sykes had succeeded in drawing the line he wanted from acre in the west to Kook in the East but for some in government this was not enough opportunity toize control over the British were using the Jewish national movement to secure Palestine for themselves this is when Heim vitman is really going to

find open ears and tend Downing Street in the foreign office in the colonial office and it's Paving the way towards that critical decision in November of 1917 and so I think you can direct you can draw a direct connection between Britain's sudden acknowledgment of Zionism as an idea and an ideal and what they were disatisfied with in the terms of sypo Kim vitman was a chemistry lecturer in Manchester who had become a prominent member of the British Zionist movement he was politically well connected and rubbed shoulders with senior figures in government so hyim vitman was

uh Russian by birth he was a chemist um and then he joined the Zionist movement um he climbed in the Zionist movement he moved to Great Britain before the war well before the war Maybe 10 years before the War Began he was not before the war very well known in the English Zionist movement he was pretty well known in the world Zionist Federation um but he was by no means the most visible Zionist when World War I began in Great Britain vitman later wrote in his memoirs about having been introduced to a British government Minister

Herbert Samuel Samuel was Jewish but vitman was apparently concerned that he might be anti-zionist however Herbert Samuel turned out to be extremely receptive to vitman and went on to write an official memo in 1915 setting out a number of different possibilities for Palestine and the Jewish people um Health Minister HEI for but he didn't find willing ears in whiteall or in the colonial office for schemes that involved the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine Britain was really concerned with two things by the time that the first world war had broken out they wanted to

win the war first and foremost this was an imperative for the survival of Britain and its Empire and secondly they wanted to ensure that coming out of the war Victorious that their empire would benefit from the victory so at this stage Kim vitman and Herbert Samuel's ideas about the rights of the Jews to settle in Palestine did not find much sympathy in the corridors of power in London a disappointed vitman wrote to a friend asking whether there wasn't at least a discussion to be had about what he called the chance for the Jewish people I

realized of course he went on we cannot claim anything we are much too atomized for it what the debate did do however was to throw together vitmen the Russian Jewish immigrant searching for Homeland and refuge from persecution with Herbert Samuel and Lord Rothschild firm members of the British Jewish Elite established in society and part of the political and capitalist class Zionism for the most part across all of the community was actually in the minority but certainly most of all within the Jewish Elite because it threatened the notion of them as 100% committed members of British

society and this was complete anatha for somebody like EDR montigue who becom Secretary of State for India for him Zionism is his worst nightmare the idea that Jews are not satisfied simply with being citizens of Britain or other countries around the world but always longing to go back to the land of Israel for him he wanted to demonstrate that the Jews of Britain were first and foremost British it's important to remember that for people like Rothchild Zionism had actually been a threat you see the elite in British jewelry had fought for generations to gain Acceptance

in British Society it was only with the arrival of Disraeli in the 19th century that Jews entered Parliament and could rise to become Prime Minister and for people of High Finance or banking interests the real elite of the Jewish community in Britain their struggle to demonstrate their place in British Society meant that Zionism with its claims that Jews were a people apart and should be a nationalist movement in their own right were anathema when it's vitman that makes the difference and I think he was probably unique in his ability to persuade leading British figures that

the Jews were in fact a vast subterran Ian influence which they were not um that all Jews were zionists which was far from the truth and that therefore the key to winning Jewish support was to offer them Palestine vites men talked up the degree to which the Jewish community supported Zionism in order to get his message across to the government but for the British it seemed to be about self-interest about winning the war recognizing Zionism would be closely linked to gaining Global Jewish support for this objective on which it saw its future resting so the

British motives for supporting Zionism really we can boil it down to two elements of British self-interest at that time not an emotional interest in Zionism or a love of Jews and the Jewish plight and a desire for a return of the Jews to the Holy Land no for very specific self-interest matters of policy they were first of all all of the British government agreed that they wanted to mobilize behind Britain and the Allies this idea of Jewish power in the world they were like all of the different policy Elites in the war believers in the

notion that Jews were of tremendous influence in the corridors of power around the globe if the British government appeared to support Zionism they would win over World jewelry to their side and all that that entailed the British were convinced that Zionism was really at the center of the Jewish heart in May 196 Sir Mark Sykes had agreed his secret deal with the French Sykes Pico would form the basis of the future carve up of the old Ottoman Empire so he immediately turned his attention to Palestine still part of the Ottoman Empire and how to use

Zionist Ambitions to outmaneuver the French formal contact between the British government and the Zionist followed he immediately phoned Herbert Samuel and told him about the plan and Herbert Samuel then phoned Kim vitman and vitman brought with him naham sakalo this meeting took place on the 11th of April 1916 it took place at Moses gaster's house in mavil um and gaster wrote in his diary afterwards how proud he was that this meeting which he thought was the most important meeting that had ever taken place in the history of Zionism had taken place at his house and

Moses gasta very quickly understands that syes is looking to gain support from supposed Jewish power in the world and gasta works with this idea and manipulates this to consolidate sykes' interest in Zionism and we see actually the British government becomes very close already in 1916 of issuing a public declaration in support for Zionism now in the end this doesn't happen that year the plan syes gotot Herbert Samuel to pass on to the Zionist leaders involved joint British French administration of Palestine and a charter guaranteeing British support for [Music] Zionism but his idea was [Music] rejected

they didn't want an Anglo French condominium in Palestine they wanted the British uh to protect them not the French and that's because they thought that the French always sort of converted their colonized people into becoming Frenchmen and what they wanted was to remain as self-conscious Jews and they thought that the British uh would leave them alone and let them do that man bolstered by their Newfound credibility the British zionists thought about making specific demands after the Sykes meeting but events soon overtook them on the 6th of December 1916 British prime minister aswith resigned in the

change of government Arthur balur became foreign secretary under Prime Minister David Lloyd George Lloyd George is CS [Music] [Music] [Music] de alfor was of rather philosophical bent uh and I I think he uh wanted to think in theological terms uh he wanted to think in historical terms um uh and it was with that frame of mind I think that that he uh approached the whole question [Music] David Lloyd George AJ balur and all of those who supported the Baler declaration within the British government we can absolutely categorize as being Riven with anti-semitic thinking and not

only that but the thinking behind the Baler declaration that drove them to the Baler Declaration was from this anti-semitic thought the idea of Jewish power of Jewish cohesiveness and of a unified Jewish attachment to Zionism Above All Else [Music] whatever its basis the relationship between the British zionists and the government would continue to grow throughout 1917 leading to the Declaration that would change the face of the Middle East and ultimately determine the Destinies of two different peoples by 1917 the war was shifting in the Allies favor and in the Middle East the British were moving

through Sinai towards the borders of historic Palestine further north the Russian Revolution in February 1917 cast doubt on Russia's continued involvement in the war as Britain and France tried to outmaneuver one another the British Zionist movement took on increasing political importance syes wants to get back in touch with uh zionists and think about how to incorporate Zionism in British planning for Palestine and at this moment we see a hugely important meeting taking place in the home of Moses Gast made devil in February of 1917 and this is the point in which uh syes meets for

the first time Kim vitman andum sov um and other zionists in which it's discussed what the zionists looking for um and the British interest in Zionism so he had to bring the zionists along without divulging what were the secret agreements that Britain and France had come to with regard to Palestine which was that they would jointly administer parts of Palestine at this meeting uh for the British government was Sykes and Herbert Samuel he was there on the other side there were um vitmen and tuo uh and there was Moses gaster and he brought a couple

of his allies because he realized that vitman was beginning to push him out of the way the other very important figure was James Roth's child uh who attended this meeting um at the meeting it became clear to Sykes that vitman not gaster was the most important Zionist this is also the moment where Moses gasta is dislodged um sy's partner on the French side Pico hadn't liked gasta gasta had been insistent that there should be a Jewish State and nothing less coming into being after the war and Pico uh clearly wanted zionists who were much more

willing to compromise with the interests of the great powers and nakum sakov and K vitman were certainly happy to fit that bill the meetings between the zionists and the government seem to give momentum to the idea of British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and their potential role in its Administration but the secret syes Pico agreement between Britain and France which formed the basis of the future division of the Ottoman Empire plan to put Palestine under International Administration any change would have to be negotiated with France naam sov emerged as the man to talk

to the [Music] French Soo became the acknowledged lead Diplomat for Zionism and all the accounts say that he had an extremely sort of elegant bearing and wore very fine clothing and that his manners were uh polished and polite and smooth silky smooth um so that he could talk um um on an equal basis with the representatives of the Germans Kaiser or the British government or whatever so the day after the meeting um between Sykes and the iist leaders Sykes brought Soo to meet the French diplomat uh Pico what Sykes wanted was for suo to a

persuade Pico that Zionism must be taken seriously that Zionism uh really was the key to winning the war um um and that the zionists would only help the Allies win the war if Britain was the main power in Palestine not France British cabinet already it's hard to know how much influence Sykes ultimately had over British policymaking he was given more prominence in British policymaking around the Middle East during the War years than he ever deserved he was a relatively ill-educated inexperienced man whose only connection to the ottoman world had been as a tourist so for

this man to be playing such a role in the halls of power over deciding British policy towards the near East seems to us today to be anomalous indeed ridiculous regardless of sy's role things continued to progress for the zionists and in June 1917 British foreign secretary Arthur balur asked Kim vitman to present his demands as a declaration and promised to try and persuade his government to adopt it the leading zionists formed a political committee and drafted their demands and then submitted them to the British government this original document was one of the first drafts written

at the Imperial Hotel in London on the 17th of July 1917 it also introduced a new term and concept the national home of the Jewish people so in the initial Zionist drafting uh of the Declaration um there were protests amongst sist leaders to nakum sov that there's no mention of the terminology of a Jewish state that instead they're talking about a national home and said that this is a betrayal of what the sists are trying to achieve and sof's response was that we mustn't go too far we have to take small steps we have to

go with what is acceptable to the British government at this time and then slowly slowly we can advance our cause once we have this in hand on the 18th of sep September 1917 there was a meeting of the British war cabinet though foreign secretary Arthur balur was absent the Secretary of State for India Edwin monteu who was Jewish strongly disagreed with a declaration he was opposed to Zionism and said I deny that Palestine is today associated with the Jews or properly be regarded as a fit place for them to live Monte thought a French declaration

supporting Zionism in June 1917 was anti-semitic and negotiated changes to the British version as it went through several drafts for a few days later Secretary of State for war vicount Milner and the Jewish politician Philip Magnus sent a modified version to the cabinet it Incorporated some of Monte's changes including the caveat that quote nothing shall be done that might Prejudice the rights and political status enjoyed by such Jews who are fully contented with their existing nationality and citizenship drafting especially by Lord Milner that appeared by September was closer to the language that would eventually be

adopted in November of 1917 namely speaking uh not about Palestine as as a whole uh but uh a some sort of Pres in Palestine uh on behalf of the Jews uh which is quite different the national home the committed zionists wanted to ensure the Declaration was clear that the whole of historic Palestine would be a national Homeland exclusively for the Jewish people the latest draft was sent to Kim vitman who in turn sent it to the Zionist movement in the United States for their feedback uh there was some consultation here during the summer of 1917

uh with the United States and and the early drafts that uh had had the imprint of the Zionist uh uh elements in Britain um would have referred to Palestine uh in its entirety as being uh for some sort of Jewish entity and those elements event were modified before the drafting was finalized another key part of the terminology that emerged in part of the drafting was in some British redrafting where instead of for the Jewish people it was written the Jewish race now eventually this was taken out but I think it's very revealing that British officials

wanted to use this kind of terminology because after all this was how they understood the Jews of the world as being a racial group one that welded tremendous power and also could be inspired altogether as one unit behind the cause of Zionism supported by Britain and the Allies it's striking that the existing Arab people in the region were not named at all they're simply called the quote existing non-jewish communities in [Music] Palestine [Music] [Applause] by October 1917 the final draft of the balur Declaration was ready awaiting only British government final approval there was a rumor

that Germany was about to issue a similar declaration supporting the rights of the Jews in Palestine when balur heard he rushed to get his final draft discussed at the cabinet meeting on the 31st of October 1917 so when we think about the centinary of the Bala decoration everyone considers 2nd of November 1917 as the moment of the Declaration itself but it was actually agreed to by the British cabinet on the 31st of October and this was a hugely significant meeting and in the minutes of that meeting balfor uh reiterates the principal reasons for supporting Zionism

and highlights its expected propaganda effects uh amongst Jews around the world particularly in the United States and in Russia the argument was was put forward most strongly by Lord balfor at the meeting of October 31st uh and what he argued was that issuing this declaration would be extremely helpful for the British uh in solidifying the support of the United States uh and also encountering uh propaganda from Germany the critical thing to remember about British diplomatic pronouncements is that what one individual says does not represent the views of the government as a whole and you will

find many different points of view among British officials in the Years 1917 1918 and right into the early years of the Mandate but the British were very clear that they had not promised statehood to the Zionist movement they had no interest in doing so the British did not support Jewish nationalism they did not support Arab nationalism they supported British imperialism but this is also the meeting where uh Lord Ken who was a member of the war cabinet disqui about the possible effects of supporting cism on the Palestinian Arab population and the Palestinian opposition is completely

disregarded Lord kuren wrote a paper to the cabinet asking what was quote to become of the people of this country there were over half a million Syrian Arabs a mixed Community with Arab Hebrew Canaanite Greek Egyptian and possibly Crusaders blood they and their forefathers have occupied the country for the best part of 1, 1500 years they own the soil they profess the muhammadan faith they will not be content either to be expropriated for Jewish immigrants or to act merely as hewers of wood and drawers of water to the latter but his precient remarks fell on

deaf ears it's Sykes who tells Heim bitman at the end of the war cabinets meeting Dr vitman it's a boy as though they've witnessed the birth of an agreement to create a Jewish National home as a baby in the Middle East the final draft of the balford Declaration was 67 words long 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 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 [Music] balur well in terms of international law it really has very little standing in international law you know treaties between nations have significance um uh but governments often issue policy statements statements of intention about what they plan to do uh and those really don't have any standing as uh as a matter of of law uh

for Britain this was uh I suppose you would say a statement of its intention as to what it would do if it were to take over Palestine which of course it it had not yet done as of November 1917 two years after the Declaration a church leader in Jerusalem wrote to British prime minister Lloyd George about Jews in Palestine trying to control holy sites Lloyd George's office had said that Kim vitman didn't want to do anything affecting the rights of Arabs it said he simply wanted to be involved in a council to help provide Refuge

to Jews fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe This exchange suggested that Britain felt it had not promised a Jewish state but simply a place for them to live alongside Arabs when the League of Nations set out the British mandate in Palestine in 1923 it made Britain responsible for implementing the balur Declaration as a result Jewish immigration to Palestine increased as did Arab opposition to it expressed in a series of Palestinian protests against Britain in the 1920s they understood the people of Palestine to be Muslims and Christians but did not imagine that they would constitute a national

community that would seek National Independence and after the war very quickly when it becomes clear that Palestinian Arab nationalists are mobilizing against sanism the British government are quick to see a major problem the Bal for declaration had put in train a series of events that began to Signal its deep flaws Arab descent built to the 3E Revolt between 1936 and 1939 it was a nationalist Uprising against the British Administration demanding Arab Independence and the end of Jewish immigration it was in the peel Commission of 1937 that the British first recognized that instead of balancing communities

they had set in motion a rivalry between incompatible National movements Jewish and Palestinian Arab and it was at that point that they tried to solv the problem by dividing Palestine into two states Arab and Jewish through a partition plan and I think there you have the first recognition or admission from British officials of the failure of the balur Declaration in May 1939 the British government published a policy document on Palestine called a white paper it abandoned the partitioning of Palestine into two states and called instead for an independent Palestine in which Arabs and Jews would

share government it limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 for 5 years and said that the Arab majority should determine future immigration levels it also said that balur had not meant to create a Jewish State at the expense of the Arabs any more than the McMan Hussein correspondence 24 years before had promised promised an Arab state to Sharif Hussein of Mecca but the white paper met opposition and was dropped the British government are quick to see a major problem but there's no way that they can back away from support for Zionism because this becomes the basis for

their justification for being in the holy land their commitment to supporting the movement in the Baler declaration which becomes enshrined in international law in the terms of the Mandate for Palestine so the British are stuck with Zionism they didn't believe that zionists wanted independent Jewish statehood and after the war it became very clear that actually the vast majority of zionists didn't only want statehood they expected it I think if we're trying to assess whether or not Britain's policy towards Zionism in the first world war served British interests or not the first thing we have to

appreciate is the key reason that they supported sanism was based on an incorrect idea they believed that they could mobilize something that they saw as Jewish power Around the World Behind the Allied cuse so first of all that was entirely wrong and didn't happen because this idea of Jewish power is fake is [Music] false in September 1939 German expansionism led to the second world war over 60 million people died including between 5 and 6 million Jews the majority in Nazi concentration camps the British mandate ended at midnight on the 14th of May 1948 and immediately

the formation of the state of Israel was announced justified by the terms of the balur Declaration issued 31 years before while Israelis celebrated the birth of their Nation 700,000 Palestinians were forced into camps and [Music] exile for Palestinians the bfor Declaration represents the moment and Imperial power promised their land away to another people this is the desk where the Bala decoration was composed it is that's that's they hold balur responsible for their expulsion displacement and [Music] occupation