Balfour Declaration | 06 Nov 2024
Recently, the Balfour Declaration completed 107 years which was issued on 2nd November, 1917.
- The Balfour Declaration (named after Arthur James Balfour, British Foreign Secretary) was a public statement issued by the British government during World War I.
- It supported the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine which was then an Ottoman region with a small Jewish minority population.
- This declaration was issued to ensure Jewish safety amid rising persecution in Europe.
- It conflicted with Britain's prior promise in the McMahon-Hussein correspondence (1915-1916) to support an independent Arab state in return for Arab assistance against the Ottoman Empire.
- Britain sought Jewish support for the Allied powers to influence Jewish communities in the US and Russia, while also viewing control over Palestine as key for protecting the Suez Canal and British interests in India.
