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Jewish National Home

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aliasesNational Home, Jewish national home

3 min read

Summary

The object the British Government declared it viewed with favour in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917 — “a national home for the Jewish people” — which the Zionist Organization’s February 1919 proposals sought to secure through a League mandate entrusted to Britain, ultimately rendering possible an autonomous Commonwealth (The Balfour Declaration, lines 35-39; Statement of the Zionist Organization regarding Palestine, lines 83-91).

Details

  • In the declaration, the term is undefined; His Majesty’s Government “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and will use its best endeavours, subject to the proviso on the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities and the rights and political status of Jews elsewhere (The Balfour Declaration, lines 35-39).

  • The UNISPAL reproduction of the declaration gives the same term and the same proviso, with the endeavours directed to the object rather than this object and an apostrophe after religious, as printed (The Balfour Declaration (UNISPAL reproduction), PDF p.1).

  • The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement does not use the term; its Article III instead requires Palestine’s constitution and administration to afford the fullest guarantees for carrying the 1917 Declaration into effect (Faisal-Weizmann Agreement (1919), lines 87-89).

  • In the Zionist Organization’s draft resolutions, the Jews have “the right of the Jews to reconstitute in Palestine their National Home” (capitalised in that statement), and the mandate’s conditions are to secure its establishment and “ultimately render possible the creation of an autonomous Commonwealth” (Statement of the Zionist Organization regarding Palestine, lines 83, 91).

  • In the Haycraft Report, Arab discontent is traced partly to the Government policy regarding a Jewish National Home, partly to Arab misunderstandings of it, and partly to the manner in which it is interpreted and sought to be applied by some of its advocates outside Government; the Keren Ha-Yesod Book, quoted by the Commission, frames the pioneer’s object as preparing room and work for the thousands and millions that wait outside, and the Jewish Chronicle of 20 May 1921, also quoted, glosses the term as making Palestine as Jewish as England is English (Palestine. Disturbances in May, 1921. Reports of the Commission of Inquiry with Correspondence Relating Thereto, PDF p.46, 54, 58).

  • The Commission’s proposed basis of reconciliation is that the Arabs accept implicitly the declared policy of the Government on the Jewish National Home and that Zionist leaders abandon and repudiate all pretensions beyond it (PDF p.59-60).

Where sources disagree

  • The declaration’s text leaves the term undefined; the Zionist statement gives it a maximal reading — reconstitution, mandate conditions, an eventual autonomous Commonwealth — while Faisal’s 1921 memorandum, asking for Arab independence and unity with Palestine included in Syria, does not mention it at all (Memorandum Submitted to the Conference of Allied Powers at the House of Commons, line 85).
  • Within the Haycraft Report, David Eder, acting Chairman of the Zionist Commission, is reported as giving no quarter to the National Home view of the Secretary of State and the High Commissioner — only one National Home, a Jewish one, with Jewish predominance and no equality of partnership — a position the Commission says differs materially from the declared policy (PDF p.59).

Balfour Declaration, Statement of the Zionist Organization regarding Palestine, Faisal-Weizmann Agreement

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