THE BALFOUR DECLARATION; WHAT THE FUCK
George Orwell once wrote a great essay explaining how political language is meant to confuse instead of communicate, that the very point of political jargon is to say nothing at all. This is true, but more important to mention is that this political language does a great deal to destroy actual human beings lives. November 2nd, 1917, one hundred and twenty five such words were written. One hundred and twenty five of the most contradictory, controversial, extraordinarily fucking vague words ever recorded. These one hundred and twenty five words mark the official launching of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict thirty years before the state of Israel even existed, and made promises both might, logic, money, and some would say ‘the hands of g-d’ would eventually prevent. In the end, the one hundred and twenty five words known as The Balfour Declaration served only to spark a bloody raging debate. The declaration reads…
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of his majesty’s government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which had been submitted to, and approved by, the cabinet.
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use there best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities, in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours Sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
I won’t even begin talking about the paragraph long sentences and antiquated grammar in the document though it should be noted. The glaring fallacy lies in the middle paragraph were it is stated that that The British Government is both in favor of the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and that this process must not disrupt the current composition of the area, a mostly Arab speaking area at the time. Did these assholes not realize the conflicting interests involved?
The letter was written from Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild. Balfour was the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and was still an active statesman whatever the hell that means. Walter Rothschild was a scientist, mostly a zoologist and insect taxidermist, who had been helping write various draft proposals for the Jewish homeland in Palestine. He was accepted into the upper circles of British Government pretty much because he was a rich kid, and was a close friend of Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann was also a scientist and had a unique relationship with Balfour after inventing a solvent acetone from a chestnut that helped the British blow shit up during World War I. Weizmann was single handedly conducting negotiations with the British for a Jewish homeland in Palestine under instruction from various Zionist leaders.
The idea of Zionism is simply that the Jewish people deserve a homeland where they can, and should, live freely. The growing popularity of the movement was a timely reaction to treatment of Jews around the world growing increasingly shitty. Several different locations were discussed and nearly agreed upon as a homeland for the Jews including a section of Argentina, and what is now Kenya. But in reforming and solidifying their plans, Zionists began thinking of Palestine as the only suitable option.
David Lloyd George was the prime minister of Great Britain at the time the Balfour Declaration was issued. George sympathized with the Zionist cause, but because he was a shit talking politician, and white, he was not honest in his dealings with them. Neither George nor any other British official involved in the negotiations told Weizmann and the Zionists about an agreement struck only one year earlier in 1916 between the British, French, and Russians.
The Ottoman Empire was crumbling but they still had claim and control over almost the entire Middle-East. In anticipation of the end of World War One and simultaneous dissolve of the Ottoman Empire, British Sir Mark Sykes, and French, Charles George-Picot, made an agreement dividing up the region the Ottomans controlled amongst several European nations and Russia, while giving some measure of rule to the Arabs. Some of the land was to fall under “international rule”. The agreement had been accepted on all sides. Nowhere in the Sykes-Picot agreement did it mention a homeland for the Jewish people, and as Weizmann and others conducted negotiations, they had no idea the previous arrangements existed. The British were acting like real assholes as we haVe come to expect from them.
In 1919, included in the Treaty of Versailles was a system for stable nations to rule over those less stable ones in their transition to independence. This was known as the mandate system. The mandates really just gave power to already prosperous nations to manipulate and exploit any areas given to them. In 1920 at the San Remo conference, Great Britain was given the mandate over Palestine, an area they had already made conflicting plans for. The mandates led to the thoughtless creation of false borders that either intentionally or unintentionally fragmented the region. The image everyone has in their head of seven to ten old fat white dudes standing around a table with a bunch of maps on it drinking and drawing lines that stood for new borders is probably frighteningly accurate. By now the seeds of anti-western sentiment were blossoming as people of the region were forced to live under foreign rule. I guess that’s how it works. Let’s get back to the Balfour disaster. Amazingly, when the Balfour Declaration was issued it was, in principle, smiled on by the Arabs… or at least one Arab. Emir Faisal was arguably the most visible and influential character in the middle east, 1917. He was the son of the Sherif of Mecca and eventual King of Iraq come 1921. Upon finding out about the Balfour Declaration, he wrote Weizmann what would become known as the, Emir Feisal/Chaim Weizmann Agreement, January 3rd, 1919.
“His royal Highness the Emir Feisal, representing and acting on behalf of the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, representing and acting on behalf of the Zionist Organization, mindful of the racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people…have agreed upon the following articles.”
The agreement goes on to outline how Jews and Arabs will work together to meet their national aspirations. Feisal then wrote to Felix Frankfurter, an American Zionist, on March 3rd, 1919.
“Dear Mr. Frankfurter:
I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have often been able to say to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and Europe.
We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race, having suffered similar oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their nationalist ideals together. We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist Movement…”
Within the actual land of Palestine, 1917, word of the Balfour Declaration had not yet arrived. The British knew it would put there troops there in heightened danger and took measures to assure Arabs living in Palestine did not find out about the document.
As for the Jews, if the Balfour declaration did anything at all, it motivated those living in the fucked up Ghettos of Russia and Eastern Europe to start moving to Palestine in massive numbers. A large part of the Zionist plan was to get poorer Jews to Palestine to begin cultivating the land and developing an economic infrastructure for Jewish society. Jews began arriving by the thousands. These mass migrations obviously did not go unnoticed by Palestinian Arabs, and by the time they found out about the Balfour Declaration in 1920 they rioted against both Jews and British military. Only a few short years after the declaration was issued, Emir Feisal said he had no recollection of ever writing any letters in support of the Zionist movement, and it was becoming abundantly clear the Balfour Declaration was going to be impossible to realize.
Jews continued to flood into Palestine in two more distinct waves until the Jewish population made up nearly one third of Palestine. Tension between Jews and Arabs worsened and strong anti-Jewish propaganda circulated through the Arab community. There were more riots in 1929. The British were forced to choose a side in response to the growing problem in Palestine. They issued a series of revisions and proclamations called, The White Papers, once in 1922 and again in ’39 completely negating any promises made to the Jews in the Balfour Declaration as it had been so left open for interpretation. The 1922 white papers attempt to smooth out the Palestinian problem using the same double speak language that appeared in The Balfour Declaration, though a hint of bias is detectable in favor of the Arabs. The 1922 White Paper reads…
“…The tension which has prevailed from time to time in Palestine is mainly due to apprehensions, which are entertained by both by sections of the Arab and by sections of the Jewish populations. These apprehensions so far as the Arabs are concerned, are partly based upon exaggerated interpretations of the meaning of the declaration favouring the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government on 2nd November, 1917.
…This then is the interpretation which His Majesty’s Government place upon the declaration of 1917, and, so understood, The Secretary of State is of opinion that it does not contain or imply anything which need cause either alarm to the Arab population of Palestine or disappointment to the Jews.”
But the papers did cause both alarm and disappointment as they go on to outline how the numbers of Jews that are to be accepted into the region will be reduced each year, but also that, “…the existence of a Jewish homeland in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed”. Again, the British had contradicted themselves and were acting like asses. The tension in the area worsened until 1939 when they issued the decisive second White Paper.
“…with the royal commission, His Majesty’s Government believe that the framers of the mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country… His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.”
The papers go on to say that all Jewish migration into Palestine must cease immediately. The Jews were fucking pissed as shock and disbelief ran through the Zionist movement and Jewish communities, but it was too late for the British to make such a bold claim. Over 100,000 Jews were living in Palestine. They were responsible for much of the economic activity there, they had pseudo governments in place, and had laid the foundation for a “Jewish nation” that was essentially already functioning. And, they had organized a proficient underground military, The Hagana, that would play a crucial role in the near future.
Eight years after Britain “unequivocally” stated that Palestine should not become a Jewish state, and not long after a devastating World War Two, The Hagana and other Jewish military groups bombed, or terrorized, the last British military presence out of Palestine. The following day in 1947, Israel claimed independence. The day after that, the five Arab armies surrounding Israel declared war on them. In what Jews call a miracle, and Arabs call literally, “the disaster”, Israeli forces fended of the Arab armies and in the process won all of the land that had been allotted for “a Palestine”, and, “an Israel”, under the past British Mandate lines.
The British mandate was over. The Balfour Declaration in all its revisions and interpretations was effectively dead. The Jewish state of Israel existed, and the two remaining parties of the land, Arabs and Jews, were left to fight out problems that had only grown more heated and complex. Still now in 2007 the killing and suffering continues because politicians want to talk shit and they don’t actually care about the people there policies effect. There are countless examples of how this has torn humanity down and turned us against one another. In the case of the Israeli/Palestinian it started from one hundred and twenty five words written from a rich white ex-prime minister to some other rich white dude who was into stuffing insects Nov. 2nd, 1917, and they were probably both drunk.
A couple of years ago a great documentary called, “Fog of War”, was released about Robert McNamara’s life as Secretary of Defense and his honest evaluation that most wars are fought out of, and in, confusion. If you are cool enough to be reading this, you have probably seen it. The Balfour Declaration is yet another example of how confusion induced by simple lack of clarity, or fog, literally claims lives. Two separate groups of people, both addressed in the same document, began acting on what they believed was promised them in that document. But because of the dual language used in the Declaration, it proved a collision course. Somehow it appears that as history unfolds, it is doing so in constant utter mistake, allowing us to see clear only in hind sight that what we have done…is wrong.
The End
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of his majesty’s government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which had been submitted to, and approved by, the cabinet.
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use there best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities, in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours Sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
I won’t even begin talking about the paragraph long sentences and antiquated grammar in the document though it should be noted. The glaring fallacy lies in the middle paragraph were it is stated that that The British Government is both in favor of the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and that this process must not disrupt the current composition of the area, a mostly Arab speaking area at the time. Did these assholes not realize the conflicting interests involved?
The letter was written from Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild. Balfour was the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and was still an active statesman whatever the hell that means. Walter Rothschild was a scientist, mostly a zoologist and insect taxidermist, who had been helping write various draft proposals for the Jewish homeland in Palestine. He was accepted into the upper circles of British Government pretty much because he was a rich kid, and was a close friend of Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann was also a scientist and had a unique relationship with Balfour after inventing a solvent acetone from a chestnut that helped the British blow shit up during World War I. Weizmann was single handedly conducting negotiations with the British for a Jewish homeland in Palestine under instruction from various Zionist leaders.
The idea of Zionism is simply that the Jewish people deserve a homeland where they can, and should, live freely. The growing popularity of the movement was a timely reaction to treatment of Jews around the world growing increasingly shitty. Several different locations were discussed and nearly agreed upon as a homeland for the Jews including a section of Argentina, and what is now Kenya. But in reforming and solidifying their plans, Zionists began thinking of Palestine as the only suitable option.
David Lloyd George was the prime minister of Great Britain at the time the Balfour Declaration was issued. George sympathized with the Zionist cause, but because he was a shit talking politician, and white, he was not honest in his dealings with them. Neither George nor any other British official involved in the negotiations told Weizmann and the Zionists about an agreement struck only one year earlier in 1916 between the British, French, and Russians.
The Ottoman Empire was crumbling but they still had claim and control over almost the entire Middle-East. In anticipation of the end of World War One and simultaneous dissolve of the Ottoman Empire, British Sir Mark Sykes, and French, Charles George-Picot, made an agreement dividing up the region the Ottomans controlled amongst several European nations and Russia, while giving some measure of rule to the Arabs. Some of the land was to fall under “international rule”. The agreement had been accepted on all sides. Nowhere in the Sykes-Picot agreement did it mention a homeland for the Jewish people, and as Weizmann and others conducted negotiations, they had no idea the previous arrangements existed. The British were acting like real assholes as we haVe come to expect from them.
In 1919, included in the Treaty of Versailles was a system for stable nations to rule over those less stable ones in their transition to independence. This was known as the mandate system. The mandates really just gave power to already prosperous nations to manipulate and exploit any areas given to them. In 1920 at the San Remo conference, Great Britain was given the mandate over Palestine, an area they had already made conflicting plans for. The mandates led to the thoughtless creation of false borders that either intentionally or unintentionally fragmented the region. The image everyone has in their head of seven to ten old fat white dudes standing around a table with a bunch of maps on it drinking and drawing lines that stood for new borders is probably frighteningly accurate. By now the seeds of anti-western sentiment were blossoming as people of the region were forced to live under foreign rule. I guess that’s how it works. Let’s get back to the Balfour disaster. Amazingly, when the Balfour Declaration was issued it was, in principle, smiled on by the Arabs… or at least one Arab. Emir Faisal was arguably the most visible and influential character in the middle east, 1917. He was the son of the Sherif of Mecca and eventual King of Iraq come 1921. Upon finding out about the Balfour Declaration, he wrote Weizmann what would become known as the, Emir Feisal/Chaim Weizmann Agreement, January 3rd, 1919.
“His royal Highness the Emir Feisal, representing and acting on behalf of the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, representing and acting on behalf of the Zionist Organization, mindful of the racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people…have agreed upon the following articles.”
The agreement goes on to outline how Jews and Arabs will work together to meet their national aspirations. Feisal then wrote to Felix Frankfurter, an American Zionist, on March 3rd, 1919.
“Dear Mr. Frankfurter:
I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have often been able to say to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and Europe.
We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race, having suffered similar oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their nationalist ideals together. We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist Movement…”
Within the actual land of Palestine, 1917, word of the Balfour Declaration had not yet arrived. The British knew it would put there troops there in heightened danger and took measures to assure Arabs living in Palestine did not find out about the document.
As for the Jews, if the Balfour declaration did anything at all, it motivated those living in the fucked up Ghettos of Russia and Eastern Europe to start moving to Palestine in massive numbers. A large part of the Zionist plan was to get poorer Jews to Palestine to begin cultivating the land and developing an economic infrastructure for Jewish society. Jews began arriving by the thousands. These mass migrations obviously did not go unnoticed by Palestinian Arabs, and by the time they found out about the Balfour Declaration in 1920 they rioted against both Jews and British military. Only a few short years after the declaration was issued, Emir Feisal said he had no recollection of ever writing any letters in support of the Zionist movement, and it was becoming abundantly clear the Balfour Declaration was going to be impossible to realize.
Jews continued to flood into Palestine in two more distinct waves until the Jewish population made up nearly one third of Palestine. Tension between Jews and Arabs worsened and strong anti-Jewish propaganda circulated through the Arab community. There were more riots in 1929. The British were forced to choose a side in response to the growing problem in Palestine. They issued a series of revisions and proclamations called, The White Papers, once in 1922 and again in ’39 completely negating any promises made to the Jews in the Balfour Declaration as it had been so left open for interpretation. The 1922 white papers attempt to smooth out the Palestinian problem using the same double speak language that appeared in The Balfour Declaration, though a hint of bias is detectable in favor of the Arabs. The 1922 White Paper reads…
“…The tension which has prevailed from time to time in Palestine is mainly due to apprehensions, which are entertained by both by sections of the Arab and by sections of the Jewish populations. These apprehensions so far as the Arabs are concerned, are partly based upon exaggerated interpretations of the meaning of the declaration favouring the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government on 2nd November, 1917.
…This then is the interpretation which His Majesty’s Government place upon the declaration of 1917, and, so understood, The Secretary of State is of opinion that it does not contain or imply anything which need cause either alarm to the Arab population of Palestine or disappointment to the Jews.”
But the papers did cause both alarm and disappointment as they go on to outline how the numbers of Jews that are to be accepted into the region will be reduced each year, but also that, “…the existence of a Jewish homeland in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed”. Again, the British had contradicted themselves and were acting like asses. The tension in the area worsened until 1939 when they issued the decisive second White Paper.
“…with the royal commission, His Majesty’s Government believe that the framers of the mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country… His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.”
The papers go on to say that all Jewish migration into Palestine must cease immediately. The Jews were fucking pissed as shock and disbelief ran through the Zionist movement and Jewish communities, but it was too late for the British to make such a bold claim. Over 100,000 Jews were living in Palestine. They were responsible for much of the economic activity there, they had pseudo governments in place, and had laid the foundation for a “Jewish nation” that was essentially already functioning. And, they had organized a proficient underground military, The Hagana, that would play a crucial role in the near future.
Eight years after Britain “unequivocally” stated that Palestine should not become a Jewish state, and not long after a devastating World War Two, The Hagana and other Jewish military groups bombed, or terrorized, the last British military presence out of Palestine. The following day in 1947, Israel claimed independence. The day after that, the five Arab armies surrounding Israel declared war on them. In what Jews call a miracle, and Arabs call literally, “the disaster”, Israeli forces fended of the Arab armies and in the process won all of the land that had been allotted for “a Palestine”, and, “an Israel”, under the past British Mandate lines.
The British mandate was over. The Balfour Declaration in all its revisions and interpretations was effectively dead. The Jewish state of Israel existed, and the two remaining parties of the land, Arabs and Jews, were left to fight out problems that had only grown more heated and complex. Still now in 2007 the killing and suffering continues because politicians want to talk shit and they don’t actually care about the people there policies effect. There are countless examples of how this has torn humanity down and turned us against one another. In the case of the Israeli/Palestinian it started from one hundred and twenty five words written from a rich white ex-prime minister to some other rich white dude who was into stuffing insects Nov. 2nd, 1917, and they were probably both drunk.
A couple of years ago a great documentary called, “Fog of War”, was released about Robert McNamara’s life as Secretary of Defense and his honest evaluation that most wars are fought out of, and in, confusion. If you are cool enough to be reading this, you have probably seen it. The Balfour Declaration is yet another example of how confusion induced by simple lack of clarity, or fog, literally claims lives. Two separate groups of people, both addressed in the same document, began acting on what they believed was promised them in that document. But because of the dual language used in the Declaration, it proved a collision course. Somehow it appears that as history unfolds, it is doing so in constant utter mistake, allowing us to see clear only in hind sight that what we have done…is wrong.
The End
posted by Dr. Fish | 2:42 PM
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