Britain Backs a Jewish National Home in Palestine

On 2 November 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour signed a formal letter to Lord Walter Rothschild, a prominent figure in the British Jewish community, stating that the government viewed with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. Published in newspapers one week later, the brief statement declared government sympathy with Zionist aspirations, while specifying that nothing should prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in the region or the rights of Jewish citizens elsewhere. At the time, Palestine formed part of the Ottoman Empire, populated by an overwhelming Arab majority alongside a small Jewish minority.

The commitment emerged from strategic calculations during the First World War. When Britain entered the conflict against the Ottoman Empire in late 1914, ministers began assessing the future governance of the region. Herbert Samuel, a cabinet member, circulated a memorandum in early 1915 advocating support for Zionist goals to gain wartime Jewish backing. Following David Lloyd George's rise to prime minister in late 1916, British policy shifted decisively toward the partition of Ottoman lands, supplanting the earlier cabinet preference for post-war imperial reform.