Under the Mandate, it was to the organized Zionist movement that the British pledged their active support, with great prejudice toward the rights of the Arabs, despite meaningless rhetoric to the contrary.īritish policymakers understood that the Zionists aimed to disenfranchise and, ultimately, to displace Arabs from the land, but this was cause for no concern-at least, not at first. The basic premise of British policy under the Mandate was that the right of the majority Arab inhabitants to self-determination must be denied in order for Palestine to be reconstituted as a “Jewish State”. While freed from the yoke of Turkish rule, the Palestinians were even more oppressed under Britain’s occupation regime. The Mandate actually incorporated the language of the Balfour Declaration, which determined the nature of Great Britain’s rule over Palestine’s inhabitants. Īfter the First World War, under the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, Britain was appointed to rule over the conquered territory of the former Ottoman Empire. Acting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in July spoke about suing Britain over the Balfour Declaration by observing, accurately, that it determined a course of policy that ultimately culminated in over 700,000 Arabs being ethnically cleansed from their homes in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration, however, is no cause for celebration among the Palestinians, who fully grasp its true significance. Reflecting this deeply ingrained prejudice against the Palestinians, British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this week glorified the Balfour Declaration by proclaiming, “We are proud of the role that we played in the creation of state of Israel and we will certainly mark the centenary with pride.” The US government and mainstream media present a narrative lifted wholesale from Israeli propaganda about how the “Jewish state” came into existence, while the Palestinian perspective is hardly acknowledged. ![]() The main reason for this lack of understanding among the public is that the history taught in the United States and other Western countries systematically misrepresents the conflict’s historical origins. While most people with basic knowledge about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have heard of this document, few understand what it really was, why it is so significant, and why it remains so relevant today. ![]() One-hundred years ago today, the famous-or infamous-“Balfour Declaration” was issued by the government of Great Britain. The Balfour Declaration determined British policy under the League of Nations’ Mandate, which ultimately facilitated the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
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