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Tag: Balfour Declaration

Balfour is but one milestone

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a cause for commemoration and even celebration on the part of Jewish activists worldwide.

The Balfour Declaration refers to a short letter from Lord (Arthur) Balfour, former U.K. prime minister and then-foreign secretary, to Lord (Lionel Walter) Rothschild. In it, Balfour declared that the British cabinet had approved a statement that the government favoured the establishment of a Jewish national home in what was soon to become the British Mandate of Palestine.

The implications of the declaration have been debated by pro- and anti-Israel activists for, well, an entire century. For many in the pro-Israel community, the declaration is akin to a Magna Carta for the Zionist movement: an affirmation – from the very authority that would oversee the territory – that Zionism was indeed a worthy enterprise.

Without diminishing this sentiment, I offer my interpretation of the Balfour Declaration and what it teaches us about pro-Israel advocacy today.

The Balfour Declaration was a strategically vital recognition of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination – and one that clearly affected the course of history. But Balfour did not establish our national rights, which pre-existed the declaration. These rights have always been rooted in the natural right of every nation to shape its own identity and achieve self-determination in its ancestral land.

This is not a minor distinction. We dare not confuse the validation of our rights with the source of our rights. Indeed, our detractors falsely do so. In their minds, if the Balfour Declaration can be dismissed as a “colonial” statement, the rights of the Jewish people to which it speaks can be similarly undermined.

It’s this sort of nonsense that suggests Jewish history in the land began in 1917. To believe it, one would have to ignore the mountains – and caverns – of archeological and historical evidence that confirm a Jewish presence in the land for millennia. In addition to various non-biblical documents confirming Jewish indigenous roots in Israel, the Bible itself is widely recognized – even by ardent atheists – as a historical chronicle of a particular people in a particular land.

As Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive office of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), recently observed, the Balfour Declaration was “one milestone among many that confirm the moral, historic and legal right of the Jewish people to self-determination in our ancestral land. Just as many states endorsed the Balfour Declaration at the time, the international community’s support for the national liberation of the Jewish people after centuries of exile has been expressed time and again.”

Fogel further noted that, in a similar vein, November also marks “the 70th anniversary of the UN partition resolution of 1947, which expressly called for the creation of a Jewish state.”

The Balfour Declaration matters today precisely because it is more important than ever that we show how our fundamental rights as a people are backed by international consensus. The declaration is not the linchpin of this recognition but rather a signpost on the road to achieving widespread affirmation of our rights.

Every year, CIJA brings approximately 200 Canadian leaders and future leaders (almost all of whom are non-Jewish) on fact-finding missions to Israel. As someone who heads an annual trip of post-grad students, I can tell you that most Canadians – including those sympathetic to Israel – are not particularly interested in what a British lord had to say about the region a century ago.

But what they do care about, and what makes them more receptive to understanding the strong legal and moral foundation for Israel’s existence, is that many global figures and organizations (including the United Nations) have echoed these rights. In this regard, Balfour is an important thread of the historic fabric.

The importance of non-Jewish validators applies to many pro-Israel advocacy issues, such as Israel’s right to define itself as a Jewish homeland, the dangers of BDS (the movement to boycott, divestment from and sanction Israel) or the threat posed by Israel’s neighbours. On these and other topics, our target audience is generally more receptive to our perspective when we can demonstrate that it is one shared by others, including governments and leaders around the world.

Balfour matters, but we should remember why. The declaration serves not as the basis for modern Israel’s existence but as a key witness to the abundant evidence – irrefutable, millennia-old proof – of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.

Steve McDonald is deputy director, communications and public affairs, at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/koshermcdonald.

Posted on November 24, 2017November 23, 2017Author Steve McDonaldCategories Op-EdTags Balfour Declaration, CIJA, Israel, Shimon Koffler Fogel
ביקור חשוב

ביקור חשוב

נציגי הפדרציה היהודית של ונקובר ביקרו בישראל, ברשות הפלסטינית ובירדן. (צילום: twitter.com/JewishVancouver)

משלחת של הפדרציה היהודית של אזור מטרו ונקובר בשיתוף פעולה עם המרכז לעניני ישראל והיהודים בקנדה, חזרה מביקור חשוב בישראל, ברשות הפלסטינית ובירדן. בראש המשלחת עמדה יו”ר מועצת המנהלים של הפדרציה היהודית, קרן ג’יימס. כן השתתפו בה המנכ”ל, עזרא שנקן, היו”ר לשעבר סטיבן גרבר והיו”ר של המרכז, דיוויד קייפ.

המשלחת מסרה בדיונים שניהלה עם נציגים שונים מישראל את תמיכתה בישראל ואת הרצון להגיע לשלום באזור. הפגישות התנהלו בין היתר עם בכירים במערכת הפולטית בישראל. ובהם: שר התשתיות הלאומיות, האנרגיה ומקורות מים, יובל שטייניץ (ממפלגת הליכוד), שרת המשפטים, איילת שקד (ממפלגת הבית היהודי), סגנית שר במשרד החוץ, ציפי חוטובלי (ממפלגת הליכוד) וסגן השר לעניינים דיפלומטיים במשרד ראש הממשלה, מיכאל אורן (ממפלגת כולנו). כן התקיימה פגישה עם נציג האופוזיציה יו”ר מפלגת יש עתיד, יאיר לפיד. בנוסף התקיימו פגישות עם שגרירת קנדה בישראל, דבורה ליונס והקוסטוס (שומר המקומות הקדושים) של הכס הקדוש בישראל הפורש, האב פיירבטיסטה פיצאבלה.

נציגי הפדרציה היהודית לקחו חלק בישיבת חבר הנאמנים של הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, שדנה במשמעות החוק של ממשלת ישראל בנושא הגיור (המאפשר לרבנות הראשית בישראל סמכות בלעדית בהליכי הגיור), וכן בהשעיית ההסכם לגבי סידורי התפילה בכותל המערבי (“מתווה הכותל”), על ידי ראש הממשלה, בנימין נתניהו, עקב לחצן של הפלגות החרדיות יהדות התורה וש”ס. כידוע יו”ר הסוכנות היהודית, נתן שרנסקי מתנגד להשעיית סידורי התפילה החדשים וחוק הגיור. יצויין עוד כי שני נושאים אלה מטבע הדברים מעסיקים רבות יהודים הגרים בישראל ומחוצה לה, שלא נמנים על הזרם האורתודוכסי (בהם רפורמים וקונסרבטיבים).

המשלחת התשתפה גם באירוע הרשמי בכנסת לזכרו של ראש הממשלה לשעבר, יצחק רבין ז”ל.

נציגי הפדרציה היהודית והמרכז לענייני ישראל והיהודים יצאו לרמאללה ושם נפגשו עם ראש הממשלה של הרשות הפלסטינית, פרופסור ראמי חמדאללה. הנציגים מסרו לחמדאללה את תמיכתם בהסכם השלום בין הצדדים, וכי על הרשות הפלסטינית לקבל את הצעתה של ממשלת ישראל לחדש את המשא ומתן בנושא השלום. הם ביקשו מראש ממשלת הרשות הפלסטינית לעשות יותר כדי להילחם בהסתה ובטרור. בפדרציה היהודית מציינים בהקשר זה כי החשוב היה להם להסביר ישירות לראש הממשלה הפלסטינית מהיא העמדה של היהודים בתפוצות בנושאי השלום וישראל.

כן נפגשו נציגי המשלחת בעמאן עם ראש הלשכה המלכותית של ירדן ולשעבר ראש ממשלת ירדן (בשתי קדנציות), ד”ר פיאז א-טראונה. המשלחת הציגה לפניו מסרים דומים לאלה שהועברו לראש הממשלה הפלסטינית, תוך הדגשה שעל המנהיגים הערבים להפעיל לחץ על הרשות הפלסתינית לעשות יותר כדי להילחם בהסתה ובטרור. וכן להניע את הרשות לקבל את עמדת ישראל ולחדש את המשא ומתן לשלום. בישיבה עם ד”ר א-טראונה נכח גם שגרירה של קנדה בירדן, פיטר מקדוגל.

בפדרציה היהודית מבקשים לציין כי מידע בדבר שתי הפגישות עם ראש הממשלה הפלסתיני, ועם ראש הלשכה המלכותית של ירדן, נמסר לממשלות קנדה וישראל, שאף הביעו תמיכה בהן.

קדמו לפגישות בישראל, ברשות הפלסטינית ובירדן, ביקור בלונדון שכלל פגישות של נציגי המשלחת המשותפת עם נציגים של ראשי הקהילה היהודית. הדיונים כללו בעיקר את נושאי הגברת הביטחון והמלחמה באנטישמיות. המשלחת השתתפה גם באירועי מאה שנה להצהרת בלפור עם שר החוץ הבריטי, בוריס ג’ונסון, שנערכו בלשכת יושב ראש בית הנבחרים הבריטי, ג’ון ברקו. המשלחת ביקרה עוד בבית קנדה בלונדון ונפגשה עם נציגו מטעם ממשלת קנדה.

Format ImagePosted on November 8, 2017Author Roni RachmaniCategories עניין בחדשותTags Balfour Declaration, CIJA, Israel, Jewish Federation, Jordan, London, Palestinian Authority, הפדרציה היהודית, הצהרת בלפור, ירדן, ישראל, לונדון, מרכז לעניני ישראל והיהודים, רשות הפלסטינית
Balfour after 100 years

Balfour after 100 years

Balfour Street in Jerusalem. (photo by Pat Johnson)

One hundred years ago, on Nov. 2, 1917, one of history’s most consequential letters was typed. Simple and short, the Balfour Declaration, as it would become known, is a central artifact in the history of Zionism, the state of Israel and the ongoing conflict over claims to the land on which Israelis and Palestinians reside.

The letter from the British foreign secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, was addressed to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leader in the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. It informed Rothschild that the British cabinet had approved this one-paragraph statement:

“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

The letter was enormously historic for a number of reasons, not least that the first Zionist Congress had taken place a mere 20 years earlier, the first tangible expression in two millennia that the Jewish people should reasonably anticipate self-determination in the land of Zion. And now one of the world’s great powers was on record as supporting the endeavour.

The letter was also hugely presumptuous because the area in question was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans would not be thoroughly vanquished by the British-French-Russian allies until 1918. Yet the allies were so confident of eventual victory that the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 was already (on paper) carving up the region between the European powers.

Nevertheless, the document stood as a testament to British allegiance to the Zionist ideal in the interwar period. That allegiance, of course, amounted to very little in practical terms. In response to Arab protests (including mass murder in Hebron in 1929), the British froze Jewish migration to Palestine at the very moment in history when it was more urgently necessary than ever. The Holocaust – which can be said to have begun in earnest on Kristallnacht, Nov. 9, 1938, 21 years to the day after the Balfour Declaration was made public – occurred, of course, because of the Nazis’ Final Solution. But it could only have occurred in the enormous extent that it did because no other nation on earth would welcome the imperiled Jews of Europe. Palestine was the most obvious place for them to go, but British resolve folded in the face of Arab protest and Jews were trapped in Europe, where six million would die.

Likewise, the British commitment to Zionism amounted to nothing when it mattered again after the Holocaust. Still preventing widespread Jewish migration to Palestine, the British eventually gave up on the entire enterprise and threw the troubled land into the lap of the newly founded United Nations. The UN, for its part, eventually passed the Partition Resolution that would have seen two states – one Jewish, one Arab – formed in Palestine.

The reality remains that one significant sub-clause of the Balfour Declaration stands out to the contemporary eye. The statement that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” would certainly be viewed by many as remaining unfulfilled. The civil rights of non-Jewish citizens of Israel are protected in law, but serious inequalities remain. More significantly, the statelessness and associated lack of civil rights experienced by Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank would certainly not live up to the well-intentioned words of Balfour.

Some say the British government should apologize for their role in advancing an independent Jewish state. British Prime Minister Theresa May batted that one back in a letter to her party’s Conservative Friends of Israel, saying, “We are proud of our role in creating the state of Israel.… The task now is to encourage moves toward peace.”

If apologies are in order, the British government might consider apologizing for giving little but lip-service to the Zionism enterprise throughout the 20th century.

The Balfour anniversary is an interesting time to reflect on history – and the past has an important role to play in informing us of the present. But, as always, we should keep our focus on the future.

Format ImagePosted on October 27, 2017November 3, 2017Author The Editorial BoardCategories From the JITags Balfour Declaration, Britain, history, Israel, Zionism
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