The Balfour Declaration said the British would "view with favour the establishment in Palestine

Consequently, historical views held by Jews and Palestinians of the Balfour Declaration, a statement made in 1917 by the British in support of a national home for the Jewish people, could not be more different.

Israelis see the Balfour Declaration as merely a matter of course, since it granted the European Zionist movement, as yet another national movement of European origin, what it perceived as its rightful claim – a territory.

In November 1917, as British troops were fighting their way up to Jerusalem, seizing Palestine from the Turks, the Foreign Secretary in London wrote a letter that became known as the Balfour Declaration.

Even before that, the notion of a Jewish State in the land of Israel was cemented in the 1922 League of Nations British Mandate on Palestine, which put into effect the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to establish a national home for the Jewish people.

For Palestine, however, instead of being limited to “the rendering of administrative advice and assistance”, the Mandate had as its primary objective the implementation of the Balfour Declaration issued by the British Government in 1917 expressing support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

Despite the fact that these rights were endorsed by the League of Nations, they were denied to the Palestinian people because of the infringement of the Balfour Declaration upon their legitimate rights. History mentions the recognition by the League of Nations of the gradual independence of the Arab States that were colonies of the Ottoman Empire. The League also envisaged a mandate authority over those States to help administer them, to build their own institutions and to enable them to achieve their own independence.