التاريخ الخفي لوعد بلفور

The single-page Balfour Declaration was sent by Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, in November 1917. It said in part: “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This brief message played a decisive role in defining the history of the Middle East, from the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 to the present day. However, despite its importance, the true origins of the advertisement remain mysterious. Sahar Hneidi notes that the Declaration of Independence was an act of carefully worded ambiguity. This deliberate frankness allowed the British government, years later, to reformulate its meaning, and even the history of its formulation, to support specific foreign policy objectives. This process, Huneidi argues, was facilitated by a later document: a little-known handwritten note by the Colonial Undersecretary, William Ormsby-Gore, in which he recounts, from memory, the discussions surrounding the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Using meticulous research and extensive knowledge of the subject, Huneidi reveals how, in the dearth of official records, Ormsby-Gore's account became the basis for a decision on Palestine that had disastrous consequences for the stability of the region. This concise and eloquent book provides a vivid case study for rewriting and repurposing history, and reframes the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflicts in a compelling manner.