Arthur James Balfour
British prime minister and foreign secretary; author of the Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration—a letter to Lord Rothschild of 2 November 1917 (5678 AM), sixty-seven words: His Majesty's Government "view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", provided nothing be done to prejudice the rights of the existing non-Jewish population. It is the first recognition of a Jewish national right by a great power, and the Mandate rests on it.
And by the same man there is the Aliens Act of 1905, passed by his government and aimed directly at Jewish immigration from Russia: the first restriction on entry in British history. Neither cancels the other, and he cannot be printed as a friend of the Jews without it. He himself explained the declaration partly by saying that it was better for Jews to have a land of their own than to come to England.
On the timeline
Sources
Documents of the period
- The Balfour Declaration, letter to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917; the Aliens Act 1905 — the sixty-seven words of the declaration — and the immigration restriction twelve years earlier
Basis: documents and evidence.