Summary
Arthur James Balfour’s letter of 2 November 1917 to Lord Rothschild, headed Foreign Office and reproduced in a one-page UNISPAL PDF whose headnote gives its source as the United Kingdom, conveying on behalf of His Majesty’s Government a Cabinet-approved declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations: a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, to be facilitated by the Government’s best endeavours, on the clear understanding that nothing shall be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country (The Balfour Declaration (UNISPAL reproduction), PDF p.1).
What the file is
- The letter as reproduced in the UNISPAL PDF downloaded from https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/E210CA73E38D9E1D052565FA00705C61.pdf (access basis: public-domain, as supplied). The original is the PDF (1 page); the supplied text copy (about 141 words) renders the whole page with a PDF p.1 marker, so locators are PDF p.1 throughout. The text copy matches the PDF.
- The file was delivered under the label Powers — San Remo Resolution on the Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine mandates. No such resolution, and no mention of San Remo, Syria, Mesopotamia, mandates or the League of Nations, appears in the file: its entire content is the 1917 Balfour letter (see Open questions).
- Headnote on the page: the source is given as the United Kingdom, dated 2 November 1917. The signature is given as (Signed) Arthur James Balfour.
Section by section
- Headnote and letterhead (PDF p.1): source given as United Kingdom, dated 2 November 1917; the letter itself is headed from the Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917, and addressed to Lord Rothschild, named only by that title.
- Covering words (PDF p.1): Balfour conveys, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, a declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
- The declaration (PDF p.1): quoted in full under Key passages. Its two limbs are the favour and endeavours for a national home in Palestine, and the proviso protecting the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine and the rights and political status of Jews in any other country. Political rights for the non-Jewish communities are not mentioned in the proviso as printed. This reproduction reads the object where the Avalon reproduction reads this object, and prints an apostrophe after religious (see Open questions).
- Transmission (PDF p.1): Balfour asks Rothschild to bring the declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
- Signature (PDF p.1): the close is Yours sincerely, signed Arthur James Balfour.
Key passages
- “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of the object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious’ rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country” (PDF p.1)
- “I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet” (PDF p.1)
- “I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation” (PDF p.1)
Evidence the work relies on
- The file is the letter itself as reproduced in this PDF; it cites no evidence and names no source beyond the United Kingdom headnote, the Foreign Office letterhead and the Cabinet approval it records (PDF p.1).
Analysis
- Form: a single-page reproduction of a government minister’s letter to an individual, carrying a Cabinet-approved declaration in a single quoted sentence, with a repository headnote giving its source and date. Palestine’s existing population enters the text only as existing non-Jewish communities, defined by negation, and is promised civil and religious rights; the Jewish people is promised a national home in Palestine, a term the file does not define.
- Limits, on the file’s own terms: the letter does not define national home, does not state Palestine’s boundaries, and does not say how the two limbs are to be reconciled if they conflict. As a reproduction it adds no commentary, annex or mandate text, so it cannot by itself establish anything about the San Remo decisions its delivery label names.
People, organizations, places and events
Balfour Declaration, Arthur James Balfour, Britain, Foreign Office
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
- This is a second reproduction of the same letter ingested as The Balfour Declaration from the Avalon Project. The two reproductions agree in substance and wording except at two points recorded under Open questions: the object against this object, and an apostrophe after religious here that the Avalon text does not have. This reproduction also adds the United Kingdom headnote, the Foreign Office letterhead and the (Signed) form of the signature, which the Avalon rendering does not show in the same form.
- The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement of 3 January 1919 requires Palestine’s constitution and administration to afford the fullest guarantees for carrying into effect the British Government’s Declaration of the 2nd of November, 1917 (Faisal-Weizmann Agreement (1919), lines 87-89).
- The Zionist Organization’s February 1919 statement quotes the declaration in full as the British recognition of the Jewish historic title, and proposes a mandate securing the National Home on its basis (Statement of the Zionist Organization regarding Palestine, lines 147-149).
Open questions
- Delivery label against content: the file was delivered as a San Remo resolution on the Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine mandates, but the PDF contains only the Balfour letter of 2 November 1917, with no San Remo, Syria, Mesopotamia or mandate text. Whether the wrong PDF was attached to that label, or the label was applied to this PDF in the repository, cannot be settled from the file. The San Remo resolution itself is not ingested by this file.
- Wording against the Avalon reproduction: this reproduction reads “the achievement of the object” and “religious’ rights” (apostrophe as printed, in both the PDF and its text copy); the Avalon reproduction at The Balfour Declaration reads the achievement of this object and religious rights with no apostrophe (lines 35-39). Both forms are recorded; neither is corrected against the other.
- The addressee is named only as Lord Rothschild; which Lord Rothschild, and in what capacity he received the letter, is not stated in the file.
- National home is not defined in the file, and the file gives no boundaries for Palestine.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full.