The British Army occupied Jerusalem on Sunday, 9 December 1917, and withdrew on 14 May 1948. During its brief imperium in the Promised Land, Britain kept the promise made in 1917 by its Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, in the Declaration that bears his name, 'to favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people'. While nurturing the 'national home', a term as deliberately vague as Palestinian 'autonomy' is today, Britain neglected to observe the Declaration's final clause: 'that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country'.

LRB 7 June 2001 | PDF Download