#47 The Balfour Declaration and the Palestinian Question

Anti-Semitism had a long history in the 19th century. There had been discussions among a small minority of Jewish peoples of finding land for a nation-state for the Jewish people. Many different options were considered. This long-felt need was given expression in 1917 just at the point in the 1914-18 war when both sides knew they might lose. The Balfour Declaration was one final consequence of the 1914 war which we need to examine here. It has had a lasting effect and led 30 years later to the creation of the state of Israel.