LONDON, UK. — On November 2, 1917, during World War I, the British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour submitted a declaration of intent to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This letter, to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, became known as the Balfour Declaration, and stated that the British government supported Zionist plans for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine.
Some of the motivation for the Declaration came from Britain’s hopes to increase Jewish support for the Allied effort in World War I.
The Balfour Declaration was unpopular among Arabs in Palestine, who feared that their own rights would be subjugated with the creation of a Jewish homeland.
Increased tension between Jews and Arabs during the post-war period caused delays in the enactment of the Balfour Declaration.
However, after the atrocities against the Jewish people during the Holocaust in World War II, the genocidal Zionist cause gained much support from the international community, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
