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Category Archives: Pre-Balfour Declaration
The best book on the Balfour Declaration is…
Book Review: Palestine the Reality by J.M.N. Jeffries By John McHugo Many people trying to get to grips with the Israel/Palestine conflict begin with the First World War and the contradictory promises Britain made at that time. These were pledges … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Book Reviews, Mandate Period, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged Anglo-French Declaration, Balfour Declaration, McMahon Hussain, Palestine Mandate, Sykes Picot
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The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine A history of settler colonial conquest and resistance
By Rashid Khalidi Profile Books £25.00 Book review Review by Tim Llewellyn In the midst of Jerusalem’s Old City, on the cusp of the Muslim and Jewish quarters, reposes the Khalidi family library, an archive of scriptures, literature and letters … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Book Reviews, Mandate Period, Post-Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Resources, Zionism Debate
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Book Review: The Balfour Declaration – Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine by Bernard Regan
by John McHugo In The Balfour Declaration: Empire, The Mandate and Resistance in Palestine, Bernard Regan shows us what Britain did (and what Britain thought it was doing) by issuing the Balfour Declaration, by incorporating it into the League of … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Book Reviews, Mandate Period, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour Declaration, Mandate
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Britain in Palestine Exhibition
We have PDF copies of these panels at A1 size. We also have printed copies mounted on polystyrene and suitable for use in an exhibition. If you would like to set up an exhibition and hire these mounted panels or … Continue reading
Posted in Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Resources
Tagged Britain in Palestine, Timeline
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Book Review: Legacy of Empire – Britain, Zionism and the Creation of Israel by Gardner Thompson
By Tim Llewellyn, Oct 10th 2019 “…[T]he Mandate has proved to be unworkable in practice…[and] the obligations undertaken by the two communities in Palestine have been shown to be irreconcilable.” (Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour Declaration, British Mandate
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Britain’s historic responsibility to the people of Palestine, Gaza and Israel
John McHugo Edited text of speech for the Balfour Project event The Tragedy of Gaza in Edinburgh 17 March 2018 My role is to explain why Britain carries a historic responsibility to the people of Palestine generally, to the people … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Project viewpoint, Historical, Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Article 22, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Haycraft Comminssion, Palestine Mandate
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Conferences in Glasgow and Edinburgh
March 14th and 17th 2019 On March 14th at 300 people at Glasgow University heard former British and Israeli diplomats and distinguished journalists speak on ‘The news from Gaza: dispelling myths and telling the truth’. The following Sunday at Edinburgh University … Continue reading
Posted in Mandate Period, Past, Pre-Balfour Declaration
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Palestine 1948: Britain Surrenders to Terror
Peter Shambrook Being British, the 500-year-old British Empire story fills me with a mixture of pride – and pain and shame. Regarding the events of 1948, locating truth is extremely challenging, given the irreconcilable national narratives. So I come at … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged Balfour, Palestine Mandate
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“The Jewish Question” in 19th century Europe
By Ian Portman Abstract Faced with increasing antisemitism in Europe towards the end of the 19th century, many Jews chose to join the great waves of European emigration to the United States. Since the high middle ages, most of the … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Evangelicals and Christian Zionism, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged 19th Century, Balfour, Dreyfus, Evangelicals, Hechler, Herzl, jewish question, Palestine, pogroms, restorationism, Shaftesbury, Zionism
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Britain Palestine Israel – 70 years on
Donate A 20-page booklet is now available containing the speeches at the conference of the Balfour Project in partnership with King’s College London (see below). The booklet also includes the Balfour Centenary Declaration, which has now been signed by 141 … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Mandate Period, Past, Post-Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1922, 1948, British Mandate, Israel, League of Nations, nakba, Palestine, Palestine Mandate, War of independence
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Evangelicals, the Balfour Declaration and Zionism
By Roger Spooner When talking about the Balfour Declaration with a pastor from Bethlehem, he commented,’ the problems for the Palestinians didn’t start in 1917, they started in 1840′. Literal reading of the Bible which had developed in the 17th … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Current Positions, Evangelicals and Christian Zionism, Historical, Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1840, 19th Century, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Evangelicals, Lloyd George, restorationism, Shaftesbury, Zionism
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The Balfour Declaration, 2 November 1917: A Fateful Improbability
Centenary Lecture to the History Group, The Norfolk Club, 14 September 2017 by William Mathew It is argued here that only a special conjuncture of chance and short-term circumstance made it possible for an effective pro-Zionist policy to be successfully … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Current Positions, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Lloyd George, Weizmann, Zionism
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An interview between Mr Balfour and Justice Brandeis, Paris 1919
An Interview1 in Mr. Balfour’s Apartment, 23 Rue Nitot, Paris, on June 24th, 1919, at 4:45 p.m. Present: Mr. Balfour, Mr. Justice Brandeis, Lord Eustace Percy and Mr. Frankfurter 2 Mr. Balfour expressed great satisfaction that Justice Brandeis came to … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1919, Balfour, Brandeis, League of Nations
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Memories Of The Future: On The Anniversary Of The Balfour Declaration
By His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal Member of the Jordanian royal family “A historian can record what went wrong, but – in his feckless and unhelpful way – he’s not necessarily there to tell them how they … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged Arab Revolt, Balfour Declaration, Sharif Hussein
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Prominent Israelis call for recognition of Palestine
Jerusalem, 26.10.2017 BRITAIN’S BROKEN PROMISE: TIME FOR A NEW APPROACH The 1917 Balfour Declaration, issued by the British Empire at the height of its power, promised to help “facilitate the achievement” of a “national home for the Jewish … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Balfour Declaration, Israel, Palestine, Policy Working Group, Recognition of Palestine
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Calls for Acknowledgement of Britain’s Role
Nicholas Frayling in the Church Times: British responsibility for the contradictions in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute gives the UK a duty to right a wrong, A policy of 1917 whose legacy needs addressing. Donald Macintyre in the Guardian Oct 13th ‘A … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Balfour Declaration, Bishop Doe, Palestine
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The Balfour Declaration: 100 Years On.
At this 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which arrives on November 2nd many events, looking at the century of conflict the Declaration has lead to, are taking place around the country. One major one on October 31st at Methodist Central … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Balfour Declaration
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Different ways of seeing the Balfour Declaration – BBC Radio 4 “Sunday” 1st October 2017
“The BBC Radio Four ‘Sunday’ programme on October 1st included this very fair and balanced report on the forthcoming centenary of the Balfour Declaration. Chris Rose from the Amos Trust, speaking about the unfulfilled promises to the Palestinian people, echoed … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, News, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour Declaration, BBC Radio 4 Sunday, Palestine, Zionism
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The Balfour Declaration
It is no exaggeration that the history of Israel/Palestine for the last hundred years has turned on the seminal Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Loved and loathed in equal measure, this was the letter that changed the future. The following extract … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Curzon, Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, Montagu
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Palestine and Britain 1917-1948: Competing Policies, Creative Commemoration
This talk was given at the Balfour Project conference in Southwark Cathedral on 5th November 2016 entitled: ‘How will we mark the Centenary of the Balfour Declaration’ By Dr Peter Shambrook Context: it is only in the context of the … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Mandate Period, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1915, 1917, Anglo-French Declaration, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, League of Nations, Palestine Mandate
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‘Britain in Palestine’ shown in UK Parliament
Parliamentarians from all four of Britain’s main political parties sponsored a showing of ‘Britain in Palestine, 1917-1948’ in The Attlee Suite – one of the main conference suites in the British Parliament. The audience of 130 watched the documentary, which … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Past, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1915, 1917, Balfour Declaration, commemoration, First World War, Marking the Balfour Declaration, McMahon Hussain
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McMahon, Sykes, Balfour: Contradictions and Concealments in British Palestine Policy 1915-1917
by WILLIAM M. MATHEW Lecture given to the History Group of The Norfolk Club, 14 April 2016 to mark the centenary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916 Abstract These three war-time initiatives are presented as part of a compressed, uncoordinated, two-year … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Contradictory Promises, Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, McMahon, McMahon Hussain, Picot, Sherif Hussein, Sykes, Zionism
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The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence revisited. A lapse into clarity.
By Dr Peter Shambrook Paper given at the Balfour Project conference, Britain and Palestine: past history & future role, Durham, Oct 31st 2015 Abstract The origins of the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence – and the subsequent official interpretations, and the controversies surrounding … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration
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The Companion Guide to our film ‘Britain in Palestine 1917-1948’
The Companion Guide has been professionally written for us, and gives fascinating background to the history introduced in the film. To give you an idea of what is in it see the section on the Balfour Declaration. It has 83 … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Films, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Resources, Zionism Debate
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The Balfour Project comes to the Scottish Parliament
By Claudia Beamish MSP Posted on February 11, 2015 by Claudia The Scottish Parliament recently played host to an exhibit from the Balfour Project on British historic involvement in Palestine. The Project seeks to raise awareness of the Balfour Declaration, an agreement made … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Pre-Balfour Declaration
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The McMahon promise to Hussein
By Roger Spooner In 1915 Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt, offered Sherif Hussein of Mecca an independent Arab state if he would help the British fight against the Ottoman Turks. Hussein’s interest in throwing off his Turkish … Continue reading
Posted in Contradictory Promises, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1915, Anglo-French Declaration, British Mandate, Hussein Ibn Ali, Lebanon, McMahon, McMahon Hussain, Middle East, Palestine, Palestine Mandate
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The Balfour Declaration – Key players and events by Mary Grey
Introduction – what motivated the Balfour Declaration? (Powerpoint of Key Players) There is still conflict as to which motive for the Balfour Declaration is stronger – there are at least three motives, and some may interlock: 1. According to Avi … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1915, 19th Century, Asquith, Balfour Declaration, Herzl, Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, McMahon, Montagu, Samuel, Shaftesbury, Sherif Hussein, Sykes, Weizmann
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War cabinet minutes leading to the Balfour Declaration, 1917
On November 9th 1917 the Times published the minutes of the 4 War Cabinet meetings where, what became known as the Balfour Declaration, was discussed. They had before them the document produced by the Zionist Organisation on July 18th 1917 … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Balfour Declaration, Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, Lord Milner, Montagu, Palestine, Rothschild, War Cabinet Minutes, Zionist movement
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French support for the Zionist cause
On the 4th June 1917 Jules Cambon, wrote to Nahum Sokolow expressing French support for his project which aimed for ‘Jewish Colonisation in Palestine’ This preceded war cabinet discussions in London which did not start until July 1917 … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Cambon, Colonisation, French support for Zionism, Sokolow
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Contradictory Promises, by Peter A Shambrook
The seeds of 100 years of conflict Britain, the Arabs and the Jews, 1914 – 1918 2014 – 2018: Britain’s opportunity to acknowledge. In 2014, the centenary of the Great War will be marked in a variety of ways right … Continue reading
Posted in Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, Anglo-French Declaration, Balfour Declaration, Contact, First World War, McMahon Hussain, Middle East, Peter Shambrook, Sykes Picot
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Thought WWI was history? In the Middle East, think again
By Lindsey Hilsum Europeans may think WWI is history, but people in the Arab world are still living with the fury and violence the conflict caused. After the jihadi group, Isis, seized the Iraqi city of Mosul in June, they … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
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Setting the Desert on Fire. Book Review
James Barr, Setting the Desert on Fire: T.E.Lawrence and Britain’s’ Secret War in Arabia, (London: Bloomsbury 2006) This book does not fit easily into any one category: it is dramatic, a thrilling account of the last struggles of the Ottoman … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged Arab Revolt, Arabs, Faisal, Hussein Ibn Ali, Middle East, Peace Conference, Picot, Sykes Picot
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Wartime contingency and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 William Mathew: an Improbable Regression
Review by Mary Grey Although for many Jews this Declaration represented a dramatic re-entry of Jews into history, this article argues that it was more a regression than an advance. True, the Balfour Declaration promised to protect the civil and … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Asquith, Balfour Declaration, Curzon, Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, McMahon, Montagu, Palestine, Weizmann
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Balfour and Palestine, a legacy of deceit, by Anthony Nutting
Anthony Nutting resigned from Anthony Eden’s government when he found Eden was going into Suez. Writing around 1975, he reflects on Doreen Ingram’s book “The Palestine Papers: 1917-1922: Seeds of Conflict”. The papers in this book made clear that during … Continue reading
Posted in Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, 1918, 1920, 1922, Balfour Declaration, Edwin Montagu, Lord Curzon, Rothschild, Sykes
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Memorandum of Edwin Montagu on the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government
Memorandum of Edwin Montagu on the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government – Submitted to the British Cabinet, August, 1917 I have chosen the above title for this memorandum, not in any hostile sense, not by any means as quarrelling … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, anti-semitism, assimilationist, Balfour, Jew, Jewish Legion, Montagu, Palestine, Rothschild, Russian Jews, Zionism
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The Balfour Declaration and its Consequences by Avi Shlaim
Occasionally there are topics that have been written about at such length that it helps to clear the air, or to establish the vantage point from which I intend to consider my subject. My aim therefore is to take a … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Current Positions, Post-Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Ba, Balfour Declaration, Herzl, Lloyd George, McMahon, McMahon Hussain, Middle East, Palestine, Picot, Rothschild, Samuel, Sykes, Sykes Picot, Zionism
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