Balfour Declaration

Audience

Signed on November 2, 1917, Balfour's letter to Lord Rothschild conveying the British government's support for a Jewish national home was not publicly announced until the following Friday, when it was published in the November 9 edition of the weekly Jewish Chronicle. Following its publication, a celebration was organized by the British Zionist Federation at the Stoll Theatre (formerly the London Opera House), and this was reported on favorably by the London Times in December.

The main advocates of Zionism in the British government had clearly been convinced of its global propaganda value, as proven to them by the skillful initiatives adopted by Zionist leaders in the preceding months. As James Renton emphasizes, “The belief in Jewish influence, and the hold of Zionism on the Jewish imagination, meant that wherever there were Jews, there was a potential asset to help the Jewish cause” (p. 62). Accordingly, no time was lost in the manufacturing of propaganda to be distributed throughout the world. Special emphasis was placed on encouraging Jews in Russia and the United States to harness their energies to help ensure that the war would be fought through to a successful conclusion.

This propaganda also aimed at presenting Britain, particularly in American and French circles, as the champion of Jewish national self-determination. To French ears, the dissemination of the Balfour Declaration was aimed at justifying British control of Palestine and so extricating Britain from the international administration previously agreed to under the terms of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. To official circles in Washington, the attempt at camouflaging Britain's interest in controlling Palestine under the guise of the Balfour Declaration was perceived as a response to President Woodrow Wilson's “no annexation” wartime policy.

As for Middle Eastern audiences, the British did not evince interest in consulting Arab leaders before issuing the Balfour Declaration, nor did they appear worried about any adverse reaction from them. Regarding Palestinian Arabs, Prime Minster Lloyd George later caustically noted that he could not get in touch with them “as they were fighting against us” (qtd. in Fromkin, p. 297).