It is perhaps common knowledge that the existing state of Israel was established in 1948 (and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ensued thenceforth), by an implementation act of the United Kingdom of the Balfour Declaration. And what was the Balfour Declaration, originally? Well, the only circulating “part” thereof amongst laypersons is, the promise to facilitate the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. But that wasn’t all. The document explicitly states that in facilitating the achievement of this objective, “…it being clearly understood [by the state of Israel, that is] that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious right of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by jews in any other country [emphasis added].” In other words, no compulsory immigration of the Jewish people and no unjust subjugation of Palestinians.
Alas, it remains too general and utterly wanting in specifics on execution.
For those who don’t know, the Balfour Declaration dates back to 1917, not the early/mid 1940s as multitudes of Arabs and people around the world falsely believe. What difference does that make, some might interpose? It changes the narrative and context, entirely.
For the truth of the matter is this:
Considering the matter thus, the reality of things is that, the British promise of support and facilitation of the establishment of the state of Israel was a WWI war-tactic fulfilled 30 years after the war was concluded. That is to say, it was implemented beyond the scope of its purposiveness; which, inadvertently, instilled elements of negligence and lack of direction vis-á-vis its execution.
How so?
When the declaration was originally drafted by Lord Balfour, Foreign Secretary at the time, and handed to Lord Rothschild to deliver to the Zionist Federation, it had the purpose of mobilizing the Jewish community in Jerusalem to destabilize the Ottoman interior during World War I—a common wartime tactic in the age of empires. Empires that vast, such as the Ottoman, were melting pots of divers ethnic and religious groups, wherein the smallest communities represented fertile grounds for planting seeds of insurrection by external powers. And in wartime, these groups could be mobilized to overstretch the military capabilities and distract the leadership of an empire; thereby making it easier to defeat on the frontlines.
Having that said, the Balfour Declaration was a manifestation of such wartime tactic.
In the 30 years interim between the end of World War I and the establishment of the Israeli state, Jewish immigration to Palestine occurred, but was limited in scope; given European-jews attachment to their European identity and reluctance to immigrate to Palestine; which made the establishment of a Jewish state infeasible at the time. With the rise of Nazism in Germany, the outbreak of the Second World War, and the diabolical cruelty of the Shoah; the Jewish attachment to Europe quickly withered; for it then became a matter of existential security and survival. Hence, in 1946, Jewish masses—mainly European jews—began to flock into Palestine, then under British mandate (i.e., rule). The British then perceived the fulfillment of the Balfour Declaration as a plausible solution for a European humanitarian difficulty (a totally different purpose than its original one, i.e., defeating the Ottomans).
Jewish immigrants began amassing land and different kind of property. Some Palestinians who sold their land/property migrated to neighboring countries and other parts of the world, e.g., Europe. Upon the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, some Arab Palestinians continued to sell their properties, whilst others were coercively expelled. Almost two decades afterwards, in 1967, a large-scale expulsion of Palestinians took place, and the displaced crowds were taken as refugees by Syria, Lebanon, and other regional countries. Some even reached continental Europe, Britain, and the United States.
Despite their claim to the right to return, Palestinians settled in and made a life for themselves in those countries.
The main point here is that Palestine was never free. It was simply passed on from Ottoman rule, to the British, then to the Jewish people. But the British never really thought this donation of an entire country through. If they had, they wouldn’t have taken in so many of the aggrieved and displaced, as well as immigrants from the same region i.e., the Middle-East, who share with Palestinians a pan-Arab identity and faith.
Just like the Americans in Iraq; who had no prior experience in owning and running a country across the seas; so were the British with respect to Palestine and Israel; they had no prior experience in donating a country to a nation in diaspora (emphasis added).
Today, in what is possibly the most abrupt inflection point in this 75 years old conflict, as war broke out between Hamas and Israel—which, by the way, might escalate very quickly into a regional war—we observe the repercussions of British miscalculation and short-sightedness coming to fruition—manifesting themselves in the form of fiery uprisings swarming the streets of London and other major European and American cities.
Simultaneously, to make things even more complicated and chaotic, there are Europeans and Americans on the other hand calling for a fundamental revision of the Western immigration laws in place and the remigration (i.e. the revoking of citizenships/denaturalization and deportation to respective countries of origin) of Muslim/Arab communities.
In a nutshell, installing incomers whilst taking in the displaced and expelled is the perfect formula for chronicle disorder and intractable chaos. It is further absolutely ironic how one of the greatest Empires of all time—which “made [and ruled] the modern world,” to borrow Niall Ferguson’s book title—have miscalculated something of such scope and magnitude. And, now, it finds itself in an inescapable, even irresolvable, situation.
Well, I guess it is not easy to assume the role of Yahweh Almighty, after all. For the first Kingdom of Israel was founded under the aegis of Yahweh; and, last time I checked, He never changed His mailing address to neither Buckingham Palace nor to 10 Downing Street.
This is not to dispute or refute the right of the state of Israel to exist; neither the Palestinian right to return and enjoy a modus vivendi with the Israelis; nor to deny that what is Caesar’s is Caesar’s to give. However, I am simply stating that no Empire, no matter how great, can assume the role and power of God Almighty; for it will surely fail most terribly!
Food for thought…
