The Balfour Declaration was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, addressed November 2, 1917, that outlined the British policy for partitioning the Ottoman Empire. The letter summarized a decision reached by the British cabinet that the government would support a plan to establish a national home for displaced Jewish people, located somewhere within Palestine. The position had been influenced by Zionist campaigning but took a more restrained position than influential Zionists had suggested. The Balfour Declaration is an important document, the first to recognize the formation of a Jewish homeland, that went on to influence the Treaty of Sèvres and policy in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Balfour Declaration 1917 Background
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Fast Facts
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Dated November 2, 1917
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A statement of British foreign policy
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Called for the creation of a Jewish homeland
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Identified Palestine as the location of this new territory
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Carefully worded to avoid suggesting the whole of Palestine would become the new Jewish territory
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Included in the [http
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_S%C3%A8vres Treaty of Serves]
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Influenced policy in the British Mandate of Palestine
