Faisal-Weizmann Agreement (1919)

Summary

The agreement signed at London on 3 January 1919 between the Amir Faisal, representing the Arab Kingdom of Hejaz, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, representing the Zionist Organisation: nine articles providing for cordial goodwill between the Arab State and Palestine, a boundary commission after the Peace Conference, fullest guarantees in Palestine’s constitution for carrying the British Declaration of 2 November 1917 into effect, large-scale Jewish immigration with protection for Arab peasant and tenant farmers’ rights, freedom of religion, Mohammedan control of the Mohammedan Holy Places, Zionist expert help for the Arab State, joint action before the Peace Congress, and British arbitration of disputes — the whole made conditional, in Faisal’s signed reservation, on the Arabs obtaining the independence demanded in his memorandum of 4 January 1919 to the Foreign Office, failing which the agreement “shall be deemed void and of no account or validity” (Faisal-Weizmann Agreement (1919), lines 77-125).

What the file is

• The agreement text as reproduced by UNISPAL, which labels it a non-UN document and gives its document source as the Zionist Organization, downloaded from https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-207006/ (access basis: public-domain). The original is the HTML page; the supplied text copy (about 832 words, lines 1-191) is a plain-text rendering with no page markers, so locators are line numbers. The UN page furniture occupies lines 1-71 and 127-190; the agreement itself is lines 73-125.
• Faisal’s reservation is headed “[Translation}” in the text copy, indicating his signed statement was translated; the language of his signature line is given as Arabic (line 123).

Section by section

• Preamble (line 77): Faisal acts for the Arab Kingdom of Hejaz, Weizmann for the Zionist Organisation; both are “mindful of the racial kindship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people”, and hold the surest means to their national aspirations to be “the closest possible, collaboration in the development of the Arab State and Palestine”.
• Article I (lines 79-81): the Arab State and Palestine shall be controlled in all relations by the most cordial goodwill and understanding; Arab and Jewish duly accredited agents shall be established and maintained in their respective territories.
• Article II (lines 83-85): immediately after the Peace Conference’s deliberations, the definite boundaries between the Arab State and Palestine shall be determined by a commission agreed by the parties.
• Article III (lines 87-89): Palestine’s constitution and administration shall adopt all measures affording the fullest guarantees for carrying into effect the British Government’s Declaration of 2 November 1917.
• Article IV (lines 91-93): all necessary measures to encourage and stimulate Jewish immigration into Palestine “on a large scale”, settling immigrants on the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation; in those measures Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights and assisted in their economic development.
• Article V (lines 95-97): no law or regulation prohibiting or interfering with free exercise of religion; free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference for ever; no religious test for civil or political rights.
• Article VI (lines 99-101): “The Mohammedan Holy Places shall be under Mohammedan control.”
• Article VII (lines 103-105): the Zionist Organisation proposes to send a commission of experts to survey Palestine’s economic possibilities and report on its development, to place that commission at the Arab State’s disposal for a like survey, and to use its best efforts to assist the Arab State in developing its natural resources and economic possibilities.
• Article VIII (lines 107-109): the parties agree to act in complete accord and harmony in all matters embraced herein before the Peace Congress.
• Article IX (lines 111-113): disputes between the contracting parties shall be referred to the British Government for arbitration.
• Execution and reservation (lines 117-125): given at London on 3 January 1919. Faisal’s translated reservation conditions his concurrence on the Arabs obtaining their independence as demanded in his memorandum of 4 January 1919 to the Foreign Office; on the slightest modification or departure, he shall not be bound by a single word, the agreement shall be deemed void, and he shall not be answerable in any way. Signed Faisal ibn Husain (in Arabic) and Chaim Weizmann.

Key passages

• “mindful of the racial kindship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people” (line 77)
• “All necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil.” (lines 91-93)
• “In taking such measures the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights, and shall be assisted in forwarding their economic development.” (lines 91-93)
• “Provided the Arabs obtain their independence as demanded in my Memorandum dated the 4th of January, 1919, to the Foreign Office of the Government of Great Britain, I shall concur in the above articles.” (line 121)
• “I shall not be bound by a single word of the present Agreement which shall be deemed void and of no account or validity, and I shall not be answerable in any way whatsoever.” (line 121)

Evidence the work relies on

• The file reproduces the agreement and Faisal’s reservation as a UNISPAL non-UN document sourced to the Zionist Organization (lines 153-161). The two instruments it depends on are named but not reproduced: the British Declaration of 2 November 1917 (Article III) and Faisal’s memorandum of 4 January 1919 to the Foreign Office, whose demands define the reservation’s condition (line 121).

Analysis

• The agreement, read with its reservation, is a conditional instrument: its nine articles assume an Arab State and a Palestine as separate, cooperating polities, with boundaries still to be fixed by commission, and make Palestine’s constitution the vehicle for the 1917 Declaration. Faisal’s concurrence is expressly tied to a document outside the file, so what he agreed to cannot be separated, on this file’s own terms, from whether that memorandum’s demands were met — a question the file does not answer.
• Perspective: the parties present Arab and Jewish national aspirations as compatible through collaboration, economic development and British arbitration; the Arab peasant and tenant farmers whose rights Article IV protects are not a party.

People, organizations, places and events

Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, Amir Faisal, Chaim Weizmann, World Zionist Organization, Sherif Hussein of Mecca, Balfour Declaration, Paris Peace Conference

Concepts

Jewish National Home

How it relates to other sources

• Article III incorporates the Balfour Declaration by reference; its text is ingested at The Balfour Declaration. The Zionist Organization’s own statement a month later proposes, to the same Peace Conference, a mandate expressly securing the National Home (Statement of the Zionist Organization regarding Palestine, lines 83-107).
• Faisal’s 1921 memorandum restates, for the Conference of Allied Powers, the independence claim his reservation had made the condition of this agreement, describing the British pledges to his father King Hussein and asking that the Treaty of Sevres treatment be reconsidered (Memorandum Submitted to the Conference of Allied Powers at the House of Commons, lines 83-95).
• Allenby’s assurance to the Amir Faisal of 19 October 1918, printed in the 1939 committee report’s Annex H, had already promised a settlement in accordance with the wishes of the peoples concerned (Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca, lines 771-871).

Open questions

• Faisal’s memorandum of 4 January 1919 to the Foreign Office is not in the file, so the independence he demanded — the reservation’s whole condition — cannot be stated from this file; whether the condition was satisfied is likewise not answered here.
• The agreement is dated 3 January 1919, while the memorandum its reservation makes it depend on is dated 4 January 1919, the day after. Held as printed in both places.
• As-printed forms in the text copy: “CHAIM WE1ZMANN” with a numeral (line 77), “prohibiiting” (Article V), and the article headings “Article Vl” and “Article Vll”. Held as printed; the HTML original carries the same text copy forms for the headings examined.
• The bracketed gloss “[sc. in relation to the demands in the Memorandum]” (line 121) is an editorial insertion in the text as supplied, not part of Faisal’s signed words as the file presents them.

Coverage

lines 1-191 of 191, read in full.