What is The Balfour Declaration of 1917, how is it linked to the Israel-Palestine conflict and who is Leo Amery?
Theresa May said she would mark the 100th anniversary with pride - but other MPs said it was not a cause for celebration
NOVEMBER 2 marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration - a 67-word statement from the British government which changed the course of history.
It is generally viewed as one of the key moments in the movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine — and a cause for the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What is the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and who wrote it?
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government during World War One announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.
The declaration was made in a letter dated November 2, 1917, from the UK's then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community.
The letter was drafted by Conservative MP Leo Amery, who was then Cabinet Secretary.
It stated: "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 this 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."
It was the first expression of public support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine by a major political power and became a pivotal moment in the movement.
What were the consequences of the Balfour Declaration?
Many Arabs, in Palestine and around the world, were angered by their failure to receive nationhood and self-government.
In the following years, the Jewish population in Palestine increased dramatically and with it came an increase in Jewish-Arab violence.
The Balfour Declaration was enshrined in a League of Nations mandate in 1920 but found the two principles of creating a 'national home for the Jewish people' while preserving the rights on non-Jewish communities could not be reconciled.
In 1948, The State of Israel was declared after the end of a civil war which raged for six months in Palestine.
The Jewish people saw it as the culmination of nearly 2,000 years of hopes they would return to the land the Romans expelled them from.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out.
How will the 100th anniversary be marked in Britain?
Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will celebrate the anniversary with "pride".
She will welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to London and dine together at an event to celebrate the declaration.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not attend the event but Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry will take his place.
Speaking in the Commons, the Prime Minister said: “We are proud of the role that we played in the creation of state of Israel and we will certainly mark the centenary with pride.
“I am also pleased that good trade relations and other relations that we have with Israel we are building on and enhancing.
“We must also be conscious of the sensitivities that some people do have about the Balfour declaration and we recognise that there is more work to be done. We remain committed to the two state solution in relation to Israel and the Palestinians.”
What are critics of the celebrations saying?
Other MPs have said the centenary of the declaration should not be met with “unbridled celebration and joy”.
Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford, said: “While the state of Israel has come to exist over the last 100 years and this document is largely symbolic of a changing in attitude – certainly within this country – to have a notion of a Jewish nation co-existing in Palestine it is crucial that the next 50 years from 1917 played a far more important role.
“What is clear that the vision laid out in the letter was always certain to fail."
