Tag Archives: 1917

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 … Continue reading

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Book Review: Enemies and Neighbours – Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black

By Tim Llewellyn This is a dispassionate book, written by someone who knows almost everything, about the tragic progress of Britain’s experiment with Zionism in Palestine to the present day’s existential horror. Black does not make judgments. His careful selection … Continue reading

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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

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A calamitous promise

The Guardian’s Long Read of 17 October was headlined ‘Britain’s calamitous promise’. Author Ian Black writes ‘The brief document that bears Balfour’s name is seen as marking the beginning of what is today widely considered the world’s most intractable conflict.’ … Continue reading

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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

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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

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Book Review: Beyond the Balfour Declaration by Lord Leslie Turnberg

by John McHugo In Beyond the Balfour Declaration: The 100-Year Quest for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, (Biteback Publishing, 2017) Leslie Turnberg has tried to grapple with the difficult problem of achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Turnberg is a Labour life peer. … Continue reading

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Palestine 1917-2017: Reflections on a refugee’s story, my great-grandfather’s war diary and the legacy of Britain’s actions in Palestine.

Omah Amarah is 84 years old. From the amount of energy which sparks up as he gets started on his story you can sense his tale comes from the heart; this is no dry text book account of history we … Continue reading

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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

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Reclaiming the lost Jewish voices of the Balfour Declaration, by Robert Cohen

This article was part of Robert Cohen’s talk  at the Balfour Project conference,’How will we mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration’ in Southwark Cathedral on November 5th 2016:   A leading British Rabbi has written: “Zionism and Zionistic activities not … Continue reading

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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

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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

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Britain in Palestine 1917-1948

Britain in Palestine 1917-1948 investigates the contradictory promises and actions which defined British Mandatory rule in Palestine and laid the groundwork for the Nakba (the catastrophe) and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The roots of the … Continue reading

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‘Britain should be more active in helping resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict’

Commemorating the 97th Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration Report of Balfour Project conference, Britain in Palestine 1917-1948 in St John’s College, Oxford, Oct 30th 2014. A common theme from speakers at the Balfour Project’s annual event was that Britain’s history … Continue reading

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Dec 11th 1917, General Allenby shows how a ‘moral man’ conquers Jerusalem

On this day he entered Jerusalem, modestly on foot, two days after the Turks surrendered it, after several attempts. By David B. Green | Dec. 11, 2014 | 3:46 AM  from Haaretz In December 11, 1917, General Edmund Allenby, commander … Continue reading

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The Balfour Declaration and UK recognition of the Palestinian State….

On Oct 13th 2014 British MPs voted in favour of recognising Palestine as a state alongside Israel. The House of Commons backed the move “as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution” The full motion stated: “That this House … Continue reading

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Sir Harold Nicholson and the Balfour Declaration

From Nick St Aubyn Dunsfold, Surrey Daily Telegraph 13th Oct 2014 SIR – In 1917 my great-uncle, Sir Harold Nicolson, was a private secretary to the foreign secretary at the time of his Balfour Declaration. Nicolson, who was involved in … Continue reading

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Perfidious Albion: Britain’s broken promises: the Balfour Declaration (1917) and its impact on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: what are our responsibilities today?

This lecture was given by Professor Mary Grey in the URC Church, Crondall, Northumberland for their Peace and Reconciliation centre, 5th September 2014 Here in Northumberland, it is impossible to forget the bloodshed of the Battle of Flodden in 1513, … Continue reading

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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

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French support for the Zionist cause in 1917

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

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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

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A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: A desert uprising that began in hope but was doomed to end in betrayal

Robert Fisk on the moment the Arabs, trusting in British good faith, turned on their Turkish rulers The Arab Revolt is all about the Arab Betrayal. The blowing up of Turkish trains, the capture of Aqaba, the camel charges and … Continue reading

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Contradictory Promises

See also Contradictory Promises by Dr Peter Shambrook where these promises are explored in more detail. 1915  The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, • In 1915 Britain promised the Arabs that after the war they would be granted independence in their lands, in … Continue reading

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Healing the Wounds of History: Looking at the Balfour Declaration with New Eyes

Second annual Balfour Project conference to mark the 96th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration October 30th 2013

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Recommendations of the King Crane Commission

Below is a part of a preface to the publication of the King-Crane Commission Report, published in Editor & Publisher, V.55, No. 27, 2nd Section, December 2, 1922. This is followed by their recommendations on Syria and  particularly Zionism. The … Continue reading

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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

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The Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, 1917–1923: British Imperialist Imperatives

By William M. Mathew ABSTRACT The article sets the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the final confirmation of Britain’s Palestine Mandate in 1923 within the context of national imperial concerns: in particular, anxieties over the security of the Suez Canal … Continue reading

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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

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Britain’s betrayal of the sacred trust in Palestine, Prof John Dugard

  British policy towards Palestine for the past 100 years has been informed by two narratives, two visions. The first is the vision of a Jewish state in Palestine, captured in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The second is the … Continue reading

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The Secret of Leopold Amery by William D. Rubinstein

The drafter of the Balfour Declaration was a secret Zionist in what historian William Rubinstein states was “probably the most remarkable example of concealment of identity in twentieth-century British political history”   “…Because of his increasingly significant political position, [Amery] … Continue reading

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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

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Chaim Weizmann by Mary Grey

Chaim Weizmann was born in Russia in 1874, in Motol, now Belarus, but then in the “Pale of Settlement”, that area of Russia to which the Jews had been confined since the time of Catherine the Great. From an early … Continue reading

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Short biographies by Mary Grey

The War Cabinet (WW1) The creation of the War Cabinet undertook the supreme direction of the war effort. It was composed of David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, Andrew Bonar Law, Lord Nathaniel Curzon, Alfred Milner, Arthur Henderson and Sir … Continue reading

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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

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