Do we read the documents we talk about?
Of all historical documents, The Balfour Declaration must hold the record for being the most often referred to and the least often read.
The document reads:
“His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people . . . 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 Declaration talks about a “national home”, in Palestine, for the Jews, while the Zionists dream is to turn Palestine into a Jewish “homeland”. And note that the declaration does not grant land.
There is a big difference between a “national home” and a “homeland”. A “national home” can be made in a multicultural space; a “homeland” is an entire domain exclusive to one culture.
Balfour’s directive to do nothing to “prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” has been taken to authorise a regime of apartheid and the expulsion of non-Jews.
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