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Thursday, 1 November, 2001, 13:23 GMT
The Balfour Declaration
As Prime Minister Tony Blair meets the Palestinians and Israelis, some protesters have been highlighting the role Britain played in fashioning today's troubled Middle East.
It was in 1917, 84 years ago on Friday, that a letter was sent by the then foreign secretary Lord Balfour, which recognised for the first time that the British government was sympathetic to a growing movement, Zionism, which was calling for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
It became known as the Balfour Declaration and is seen as instrumental in helping establish the state of Israel 31 years later.
There are various theories as to why the British came to make the declaration. These range from there being a desire to get influential Jewish American backing for the WWI effort, to a belief in the Old Testament right of Israel to claim Palestine as its own.
Whatever the truth, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration is a traditional time for anti-British demonstrations by some Palestinians. There has also been some speculation that when Osama Bin Laden said Islam had been "tasting this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years," it was to the Balfour Declaration he was referring. |
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