Balfore Declaration of 1917

Why in news?

• Zionist movement under ‘Theodor Herzl’ was moulded into a demand for a Jewish homeland.
• This demand took concrete shape under the leadership of ‘Chaim Weizmann’ and finally culminated in the creation of Israel. 
• It is now 100 years since the Balfour declaration of 1917, a milestone event in the Jewish movement for self-determination.

How was the movement steered?

• The ruthless pogroms carried out by ‘Czarist Russia’ against the Jews caused a large exodus.
• The Jewish refugees who had to be settled somewhere, sought to make a country for themselves. 
• Uganda Offer - Britain offered unrestricted immigration permits for Jewish people in Uganda (Which was under British rule).  
• While ‘Herzl’ endorsed the offer as an interim solution, it received a mixed response from the Jewish masses.
• The opposition was because many Jews wanted to make Palestine home, due to their historic and religious connection with it.
• Following Herzl’s death, Jewish polity was driven by a young professor named ‘Chaim Weizmann’ who was a Russian Jew.
• Palestine Demand - He single-mindedly steered the movement towards making Palestine a home for Jews.
• The eventual creation of a Jewish Palestine (Israel) saw Weizmann becoming its first president in the late 1940s.

How did the Jewish lobby during WW-1?

• Weizmann saw the peace conference that would follow the Great War (1^st World War) as best opportunity to push forth his agenda.
• A memo of demands was to be drafted and Weizmann lobbied hard to mobilise the support of powerful Jewish men worldwide.
• The most significant of them was Lord Rothschild who wielded enormous influence in the British government.
• Subsequently, the Zionist leaders drafted a ‘declaration a demands‘ in mid-1917, after fierce negotiations between extreme views. 
• British Foreign Secretary ‘Arthur Balfour’ was courted to move a Zionist statement in the cabinet.
• The statement sought political support for Weizmann’s initiative.

What were the dissents?

• Edwin Montagu, a Jewish member of the cabinet, opposed the whole concept (Also, famous for the Monetgu-Chelmsfort reforms).
• He called for the complete rejection of the Zionist statement, arguing that it would promote anti-semetism worldover.
• He felt that, declaring Palestine a Jewish homeland would morally deprive people like him of citizenship elsewhere.
• While Weizmann galvanised Jews across Britain and US, Montagu started an anti-Zionist propaganda but was largly isolated.

What was the contents of the Balfore Declaration?

• In late 1917, the Britain cabinet finally declared complete support for the Zionist demands and promised help for the same.
• It added that the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine shall be protected.
• It also vouched for protecting the rights of the Jewish people and the political status enjoyed by them in any other country.
• This came to be known as Balfore Declaration.

Source: The Hindu