The Balfour Declaration

The Balfour Declaration is the letter of November 2, 1917 from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Zionist leader Baron Rothschild which expressed the British government’s support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration was heartily welcomed by the Zionist leadership. Subsequent British policy and declarations on this issue were less supportive of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Over a hundred years later, the Balfour Declaration continues to represent the first international recognition of the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in the land of Israel.