1917 - The Balfour Declaration
Britain declared its support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. The territory subsequently covered by the Mandate for Palestine included the lands of present-day Israel and Jordan, as well as the West Bank and Gaza.
In 1920, the Allied powers met in San Remo, Italy, and agreed to incorporate that commitment into the British Mandate for Palestine. In 1922, the League of Nations formally approved the mandate, explicitly recognizing the Jewish people’s historical connection to the land.
This recognition did not create that connection. It acknowledged it.
Even the Hashemite leadership acknowledged the Jewish people’s ancestral connection to the land while still ruling Islam’s holy cities in Arabia.
On March 23, 1918, Al-Qibla, the official newspaper of Hussein bin Ali, King of the Hejaz and Sharif of Mecca, published an article recognizing that connection. Hussein was a leading figure in the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans, supported by Britain.
The article described Palestine as “a sacred and beloved homeland” for the Jews, referring to them as “its original sons.” It also spoke positively about the return of Jewish exiles to their homeland and the benefits their work could bring to the region.
These words appeared in the official newspaper of a Hashemite ruler more than thirty years before the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
But Britain’s policies increasingly departed from the hopes raised by its commitment. In 1921, Britain established an administration in Transjordan under the Hashemite Emir Abdullah. In 1922, with League approval, the provisions concerning the Jewish national home were excluded from the territory east of the Jordan River - roughly three-quarters of the territory covered by the mandate.
Transjordan later became an independent kingdom in 1946.
The Hashemites? Yes, the same dynasty whose rule in the Hejaz was subsequently overthrown by Ibn Saud in the 1920s, before the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed in 1932.
Britain later imposed severe restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases, including through its 1939 White Paper, while European Jews desperately sought refuge from persecution.
Before Israel’s establishment in 1948, there had never been an independent sovereign Palestinian state in the land west of the Jordan River. That does not mean the land was uninhabited. It means that the history of its sovereignty must be distinguished from the history of its inhabitants.
Jewish immigration brought investment, scientific expertise, industry, and major advances in agriculture and infrastructure. Those contributions helped transform the region. They do not require us to claim that most of its Arab inhabitants were recent arrivals.
The world can offer you a new narrative. The historical record allows you to test it.
And above all, the Word of God declares His enduring promises to Israel!
In 1920, the Allied powers met in San Remo, Italy, and agreed to incorporate that commitment into the British Mandate for Palestine. In 1922, the League of Nations formally approved the mandate, explicitly recognizing the Jewish people’s historical connection to the land.
This recognition did not create that connection. It acknowledged it.
Even the Hashemite leadership acknowledged the Jewish people’s ancestral connection to the land while still ruling Islam’s holy cities in Arabia.
On March 23, 1918, Al-Qibla, the official newspaper of Hussein bin Ali, King of the Hejaz and Sharif of Mecca, published an article recognizing that connection. Hussein was a leading figure in the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans, supported by Britain.
The article described Palestine as “a sacred and beloved homeland” for the Jews, referring to them as “its original sons.” It also spoke positively about the return of Jewish exiles to their homeland and the benefits their work could bring to the region.
These words appeared in the official newspaper of a Hashemite ruler more than thirty years before the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
But Britain’s policies increasingly departed from the hopes raised by its commitment. In 1921, Britain established an administration in Transjordan under the Hashemite Emir Abdullah. In 1922, with League approval, the provisions concerning the Jewish national home were excluded from the territory east of the Jordan River - roughly three-quarters of the territory covered by the mandate.
Transjordan later became an independent kingdom in 1946.
The Hashemites? Yes, the same dynasty whose rule in the Hejaz was subsequently overthrown by Ibn Saud in the 1920s, before the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed in 1932.
Britain later imposed severe restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases, including through its 1939 White Paper, while European Jews desperately sought refuge from persecution.
Before Israel’s establishment in 1948, there had never been an independent sovereign Palestinian state in the land west of the Jordan River. That does not mean the land was uninhabited. It means that the history of its sovereignty must be distinguished from the history of its inhabitants.
Jewish immigration brought investment, scientific expertise, industry, and major advances in agriculture and infrastructure. Those contributions helped transform the region. They do not require us to claim that most of its Arab inhabitants were recent arrivals.
The world can offer you a new narrative. The historical record allows you to test it.
And above all, the Word of God declares His enduring promises to Israel!
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