Before the Declaration.

“The Jewish Question” in 19th century Europe by Ian Portman

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 … Read more here ➔

Evangelicals, the Balfour Declaration and Zionism by Roger Spooner

The political campaign by English evangelicals to get to get Jews to Palestine started with Shaftesbury around 1840 and has continued through the Balfour Declaration to this day.

Contradictory Promises, by Peter A Shambrook. Britain, the Arabs and the Jews, 1914 – 1918

The McMahon promise to Hussein

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 overlords converged with Britain’s war aim of defeating the Ottomans.

Memorandum of Edwin Montagu on the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government

Following the discussion in the British Cabinet of an early draft of a letter to Lord Rothschild which was to become the Balfour Declaration, Edwin Montagu, the only Jew in the cabinet, submitted a memorandum to the cabinet in which he writes I wish to place on record my view that the policy of His Majesty’s Government is anti-Semitic and in result will prove a rallying ground for Anti-Semites in every country in the world.

Yitzhak Epstein: The Hidden Question

In 1907 Yitzhak Epstein, a Russian-born teacher who had settled in Palestine, published an article entitled “The Hidden Question” in the Hebrew periodical Ha-Shiloah. Its subject was the attitude of the Jews toward the Arabs of Palestine. “Among the grave questions raised by the concept of our people’s renaissance on its own soil,” wrote Epstein, “there is one that is more weighty than all the others put together. This is the question of our relations with the Arabs.” This question, he added, “has not been forgotten, but rather has remained completely hidden from the Zionists, and in its true form has found almost no mention in the literature of our movement.” Read the article here

Christian Zionism’s flawed vision of Israel, by Rabbi Dow Marmur

My dictionary defines Zionism as “a movement for the re-establishment of a Jewish national homeland and state in Palestine.” This was realized in May 1948 when the State of Israel was established. Many Jews are Zionists and committed to the quest for freedom and sovereignty of their people. But the majority of the world’s Zionists aren’t Jewish. Read more

The Road to Balfour: The History of Christian Zionism by Stephen Sizer

Delivered at the first Balfour Project conference organised in collaboration with the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2nd November 2012. In this presentation we are going to trace some of the significant events and individuals that … Read more here ➔

Biography: Anthony Ashley, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury by Mary Grey

          Anthony Ashley – Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-1885. [1] After a lonely, loveless childhood, when, like many earlier members of the British aristocracy,  the only affection the growing child received came from his nanny, Shaftesbury was elected as … Read more here ➔

McMahon, Sykes, Balfour: Contradictions and Concealments in British Palestine Policy 1915-1917 by William Mathew

Three bits of policy, all belonging to the short period October 1915 to November 1917 – the first two, the McMahon-Hussein correspondence and the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the work of the Asquith Liberal government; and the third, the Balfour Declaration, coming from the succeeding Lloyd George coalition. Read more

The Balfour Declaration – Key players and events by Mary Grey

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 Read more

Significant quotes related to Britain in Palestine

1840 Shaftesbury takes an advert in the Times RESTORATION OF THE JEWS… A memorandum has been addressed to the Protestant monarchs of Europe on the subject of the restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Palestine. Read more