On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Belfort wrote a letter that would spark a conflict between two nations that is still ongoing over 100 years later. His Majesty's Government at that time view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will do everything in their power to facilitate the achievement of this object. When Belfort wrote about his government's intention to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine, 90% of the population living there was not Jewish. Just 31 years later, most of them have disappeared. This is the story of the British promise that led to the destruction of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. These are historical facts. This is not about Jews and their homeland. But let's start with the obvious question. Why were the British making promises regarding the lands of Aldora? The short answer is that it 's a damn good drug for the empire. This matter. It was World War I and the British were making a lot of promises. In addition to the promise of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, they promised Arab leaders independence if they rose up against Britain's enemy, the Ottoman Empire. Arabia did it. A month after Belfort's letter, British troops conquered Palestine, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule. The people who worked there were Arabs, mostly Muslims, but there were also Christian and Jewish minorities. There is also a small shoulder of European Jews, which was the end in the 1800s, they started to build small colonies there. At a time when many Jews were suffering terrible persecution in Europe, they felt that Palestine could be a way out. The idea of building a Jewish presence in Palestine became known as Zionism, but a marginal state movement among European Jews. Many of them believed that they should not have to leave their countries to avoid persecution, but Zionism as a political movement took a big step forward with an Austrian named Theodor Herzl. And this man is a very important name in this story. In 1896 he published The Jewish State. In this book he said that the only way Jews could avoid anti-Semitism in Europe was not just to leave, but to have their own country. And Herzl did not limit himself to writing. The following year he organized a conference in Basel, Switzerland, the first Zionist congress. The participants agreed on a program that aimed, among other things, to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine and to promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. From here the Zionist movement became very active, establishing funds to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine, companies to purchase land there, and recruiting representatives to advocate their cause before various governments. A few days after the conference, Herzl wrote the following in his diary. It was founded on the basis of the Jewish state. In 5 years maybe and certainly in 50 years everyone will perceive it. He was only wrong by a year. That's a lot of history, but it's important because the Zionist movement is an essential part of the story that will continue, especially after it found a friend in the British government where a lot of high-ranking officials supported Zionism sometimes for unexpected reasons. The Prime Minister, Lloyd George, for example, was a fanatical Christian who believed that the gathering of the Jewish people in Palestine would bring Jesus Christ back to earth. Others, like Balfour, believed that removing the Jewish people from Europe and bringing them to their own country would be a good thing. Herzl was quite visionary when he wrote that anti-Semitic nations would become our allies. Meanwhile, the Zionists assured Britain that their future country would be a reliable ally. So, that's the backstory of how European anti-Semitism, Zionism, and British imperialism led to the Balfour Declaration, this British promise to build a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Now we will look at how the UK did this. World War I was a conflict between rival empires, and the victors established the League of Nations to distribute the territories of the defeated side among themselves. They called it the mandate system, placing territories once controlled by the Ottoman and German empires under the tutelage of advanced nations until they became independent. Britain was granted the mandate over Palestine, but the Palestinian people were never asked what they wanted or what independence would look like for them. Listen to what Balfour wrote to one of his colleagues. Because in Palestine we do not even intend to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the current inhabitants of the country. Instead, it was the Zionists who were consulted on their vision for Palestine. And so the mandate ended up incorporating not only the Balfour Declaration, but also several clauses requiring Britain to ensure the establishment of a home for the Jews in Palestine. The British regime was very conciliatory towards the Zionist project. The Jewish community in Palestine grew with high levels of immigration. They had their own schools and factories and even their own police. They were led by the Polish-born Ben-Gurion, the leader of the representative body, the Jewish Agency. For the Palestinians it was clear that Britain was not offering them independence, it was handing over their country to other people. In 1936 they went on strike. British forces attempted to break the strike through mass torture and executions. Leaders were exiled, weapons confiscated, and houses blown up. Palestinian fighters attacked British and Jewish targets while British forces conducted raids on Palestinian sub-racial communities. Something had to change. The British government sent a commission called the Peel Commission to find a solution, but the proposed solution was typical. Draw another British line on the map and divide the country. Give this part to the Jews and this part to the Palestinians and make that part of Transjordan be next door. And because Palestinians were the majority in the country, 250,000 of them would have to be forcibly removed for the Jewish state to be viable. Remember, these were proposals meant to calm things down. But they didn't. Instead, the revolt continued until 1939, by which time approximately 10% of the adult male population of Palestine had been killed, wounded, arrested, or exiled. The British government really needed a solution, so here comes another report. The commission is studying the 20-year-old Jewish settlements in Palestine under British mandate. The 1939 White Paper first created a conflict between the British and the Zionists because it rejected partition and said that the solution was for Palestine to gain independence within 10 years, and for all those living there to share it together. Crucially, it also imposed severe limits on land acquisition and Jewish immigration. For the Zionists, this was felt as a betrayal, and in response they detonated bombs throughout the country, killing dozens of Palestinians. But soon everyone was distracted by something much bigger. Over 60 million people were killed in World War II, including 6 million Jews by the Germans. Jewish survivors fled Europe, with large numbers seeking safety in Palestine despite Britain's limits on Jewish immigration. This sparked a more direct confrontation between the Zionists and the British, and the Palestinians were often taken for granted as well. The Zionists knew two things. Militarily, they were stronger than the Palestinians. And Britain was exhausted from World War II, so it wouldn't have had the courage to continue fighting in Palestine. They were right. In 1947, after 30 years of occupation, Britain announced it was leaving Palestine and asked the newly defeated United Nations to clean up the mess. Okay, 1947 and 1948 are the most important years in this story, so let's take a look at how things line up then. During British rule, Jews went from 10% to 30% of the population and owned 6% of the land. Under Ben-Gurion's leadership, the Jewish Agency functioned as a government for the Jewish community, and the Zionist militias had 10,000 soldiers, modern weapons, and officers who had already fought in World War II. On the other hand, the Palestinians were not allowed to develop their own administration or army, but while they waited for the UN solution, they were still the majority throughout the country. In November 1947, the UN, then consisting of only a fraction of the world's countries, voted to partition Palestine. This plan demarcated 55% of the country for a Jewish state, but the UN never explained what a Jewish state could be when half the population on its territory was Palestinian. To no one's surprise, the Palestinians and, in fact, all Arabs rejected the UN plan. Ben-Gurion and the Zionist leadership accepted, but saw an opportunity to change the plan. With the British already on the move, the Zionists knew they would have the strongest army in Palestine, and their forces were instructed to seize more territory than had been granted to them by the UN and to do whatever was necessary to reduce the number of Palestinians in it. In cities, such as Haifa, the militia set up car bombs in Palestinian neighborhoods. They attacked villages and forced the inhabitants to leave. Haganard's troops drove the Arabs from the besieged city, taking many prisoners. After inspecting parts of Palestine, after inspecting parts of West Jerusalem, which had been emptied of Palestinians, Ben-Gurion said in many Arab neighborhoods in the west, you don't see a single Arab. If we persist, it is very possible that in the next 6 or 8 months there will be considerable changes in the country to our advantage. One of the events that helped accelerate these changes occurred on April 9, 1948, when the village of Dirgassin was attacked. A report from the British government to the United Nations described the scene. 250 people were killed in circumstances of great savagery. Women and children were stripped naked, lined up and photographed, and then slaughtered with automatic weapons. The story of what happened there sparked panic across the country. As the news spread, people fled, fearing they would be next, and historians have recorded dozens of similar massacres during this period, each time resulting in the flight of entire communities. When Britain ended its mandate, May 15, 1948, 250,000 Palestinians fled. The night before, David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel with himself as prime minister. He was standing under a huge portrait of Herzl. 51 years after Herzl predicted this exact moment. The Zionist militias came together as a new formation of the Israel Defense Forces, but the battles were not over. With the British out of the way, soldiers from several Arab countries entered Palestine, but the Israeli army was better equipped, better organized, and unlike the Arab armies had a unified command and support from several European countries. Israeli forces entered places that the UN had assigned to the Palestinian state, such as the cities of Lida and Ramle. 50,000 people were forced to flee there, many of them on foot, in what became known as the Lida death march. After they were emptied, the cities were given Hebrew names, Lod and Ramle. As in many other cities, the abandoned buildings and houses were taken over by the new Israeli state and given to Jews. By the time the UN secured a ceasefire, three-quarters of the Palestinian people had become refugees. In Arabic, they call this the Nakba. Literally catastrophe. The new state of Israel occupied 78% of what had been Palestine. The rest were annexed by Jordan or taken over by Egypt. A year later, the UN passed a resolution calling for all Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return home. They never were. Palestine was effectively erased. In the decades since, attempts to resolve this conflict have again attempted to divide the land, with each successive attempt shrinking the territory offered to the Palestinians in their historic homeland. Ironically, Israel is still struggling to maintain the demographic advantage it gained in 1948, when it forced all those people to leave. Because in 1967 it also occupied Jordan and Gaza, bringing all the Palestinians living there under its rule, and so today the population of Jews and non-Jews in this territory is approximately equal. But those who live in underemployment have no rights, no dignity, and no prospect of independence. NACPA-era tactics of colonization, home demolition, and expulsion are still being used. Israel has taken the land but wants nothing to do with the millions of people under its rule. International, Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups say this system is a form of apartheid. Long ago, Palestine was called Canaan. Tribes of people called Canaanites controlled the area for over 1000 years, and around 1200 BC. Hebrew tribes began to arrive here. Around 1000 BC regiole or he began to unite these tribes, thus laying the foundations of the Jewish kingdom. The next ruler, David, united all the tribes, expanded the kingdom, and established the capital at Jerusalem. Around 992 BC the kingdom broke into two weaker states, Israel and Judea. Both would be conquered by more powerful neighbors. During the life of Jesus, Palestine was part of the Roman Empire. By the 300s, Christians ruled the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which included Palestine, and many Christians began to arrive in Palestine, especially in Jerusalem, although the region continued to be inhabited by Jews as well. Muslim Arabs invaded in the 600s. Muslims controlled Palestine for the next several centuries, and starting in 1099, European Christians took over regions of Palestine. Their battles with the Muslims are known as the Crusades. Muslims regained control of the region in 1290, and Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire until 1917. The Hebrew Bible frequently describes wars between the Jews and other tribes, including the Philistines, an ethnic group among the Sea Peoples, probably of Indo-European origin, who had their capital at Gaza. And around 930, the Hebrew kingdom, whose founding figures, who became legendary, were Saul, David, and Solomon, split between the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. The existence of the united monarchy is not universally accepted. Around 750, the Philistine kingdom was also destroyed. The Assyrians sent most of the Israelites from the northern kingdom into exile, thus creating the basis for legends surrounding the enigmatic fate of the lost tribes of Israel. The Samaritans say they are the surviving descendants of lost tribes, although they are believed to have been largely descendants of Assyrian settlers. An Israelite revolt was defeated after the siege and capture of Samaria by Sargon II. According to Muslim tradition, in 620, Muhammad left Mecca for the farthest mosque, which is a location believed to be the Temple Mount, returning the same night. In 634-636, the Arabs conquered Palestine, ending the Byzantine ban that did not allow Jews to live in Jerusalem. In the following centuries, Islam replaced Christianity as the dominant religion in the region. From 636 until the Crusade of Palestine it was ruled from Medina, then from Damascus. Between the 7th and 11th centuries, Judaic scribes called Masoretes established in Galilee and Jerusalem established the Masoretic texts, the final part of the Hebrew Bible. The truth is always somewhere in the middle, and war, at no stage in history, will ever find a viable solution, only one of compromise.