The Original Error

AS THE GENOCIDE of civilians, including women and children, continues in Gaza, the genesis of the Israel-Palestine conflict lies buried, largely unseen. Arthur James Balfour was Britain’s prime minister from 1902 to 1905. He joined Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s cabinet as foreign secretary in 1916 at the height of World War I.

As foreign secretary and a former British prime minister, Balfour’s word carried weight. In April 1917, shortly after the US reluctantly entered the war, pressure was mounted on Balfour by Britain’s powerful Jewish community, led by Lord Rothschild, to establish a homeland for Jews in what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine.

Jews in Britain had strong Zionist leanings. The Zionist movement had begun in the 1880s. Its singular purpose was to secure the Biblical “Promised Land” for Jews in Palestine. The Rothschild Archive is unapologetic about the tactics British Zionists used to sway the British govern­ment in its favour: “Beginning in 1916, the British hoped that in exchange for their support of Zionism, Jews would help to finance the growing expenses of the First World War, which was becom­ing increasingly burdensome. More im­portantly, policy-makers in the British Foreign Office believed that Jews could be prevailed upon to persuade the United States to join the war. The Balfour Declaration became the diplomatic foundation stone of the state of Israel.”

What was the Balfour Declaration? And how did it lay the foundation for the creation of Israel? The Balfour Declaration was an official letter written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour after intense lobbying by British Zionist Jews.

This is what Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild on November 2, 1917: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours 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.”

Balfour’s letter to Lord Rothschild mentions Palestine twice, indicating its status at the time as a legitimate state under Ottoman rule. Balfour received his peerage when he was nominated to the House of Lords in 1922.

According to the award-winning Arab journalist Sharif Nashashibi, “The effect of the Balfour Declaration was best summed up by the late British author and jour­nalist Arthur Koestler: ‘One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.’”

India has over the past few weeks nuanced its position on the Israel-Hamas war. Even a resolution in the United Nations Security Council would not cause Israel to pause its assault

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Nashashibi writes: “Britain had no moral or legal right to do so. The Declaration contradicted Britain’s previous prom­ise of ‘complete and final liberation’ for the Arabs if they rose up against their Ottoman rulers. Their subsequent re­volt was pivotal to the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, and thereby the outcome of World War I. Balfour reneged on his own pledge in his letter to Rothschild that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communi­ties in Palestine.’

“In 1919, he wrote in a memorandum: ‘In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wish­es of the present inhabitants of the country. Zionism, be it right or wrong, is more im­portant than the wishes of 700,000 Arabs.’ Those Arabs constituted 94 per cent of the population of Palestine at the time. The Balfour Declaration, and its implementa­tion by the British Mandate in Palestine, culminated in Israel’s creation in 1948, and the wholesale dispossession of the Palestinian people.”

Today’s genocidal conflict in Gaza owes directly to Lord Balfour’s original sin.

India has over the past few weeks nuanced its posi­tion on the Israel-Hamas war. It voted for a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for a cease­fire. The resolution is symbolic. Even a resolution in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) would not cause Israel to pause its assault.

For the US, Israel is a critical “Western” geopolitical and security asset in the volatile Middle East. The cash-rich, pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) influences how legislators in the US Senate and House of Representatives vote. Its financial con­tributions to US politicians are legendary. President Joe Biden is a longtime recipient of AIPAC funds. America’s 7.6 million Jews form an impregnable shield to protect Israel.

Lord Balfour, who died in 1930, has escaped attention as the progenitor of the original sin that has convulsed an entire region and people.

About The Author

Minhaz Merchant

Minhaz Merchant is an author, editor and publisher

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