| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Peaceful march of Jews in London to support Israel...... | |
| Posted by: | Steven Rose | |
| Date/Time: | 19/12/23 12:05:00 |
| The Balfour Declaration of 1917 (it was not a treaty) was a public statement by the British government that it favoured the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, ‘it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine’. But by 1939, in the light of growing Arab opposition to Jewish immigration into Palestine under the British Mandate, Britain had changed its mind. In the MacDonald White Paper of that year the British government stated that ‘it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish state’. As a result Britain severely limited Jewish immigration into Palestine during the war and immediately after. In 1947 the UN voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state with Jerusalem and Bethlehem becoming international cities. This proposal was accepted by the Zionists (perhaps insincerely) but opposed by the Palestinians (who regarded the division of land as unfair) and by the neighbouring Arab states (who had territorial ambitions of their own). Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948 and the same day it was simultaneously attacked by Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. As a result around 700 000 Palestinians were forced into exile from Israel and in the aftermath around 800 000 Jews were forced into exile from Arab countries and Iran. |