Editing Balfour Declaration (section)

=== Early Zionism ===
{{further|Zionism}}

Zionism arose in the late 19th century in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe.{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=29–31}}{{efn|group=lower-roman|LeVine and Mossberg describe this as follows: "The parents of Zionism were not Judaism and tradition, but anti-Semitism and nationalism. The ideals of the French Revolution spread slowly across Europe, finally reaching the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire and helping to set off the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. This engendered a permanent split in the Jewish world, between those who held to a halachic or religious-centric vision of their identity and those who adopted in part the racial rhetoric of the time and made the Jewish people into a nation. This was helped along by the wave of pogroms in Eastern Europe that set two million Jews to flight; most wound up in America, but some chose Palestine. A driving force behind this was the Hovevei Zion movement, which worked from 1882 to develop a Hebrew identity that was distinct from Judaism as a religion."{{sfn|LeVine|Mossberg|2014|p=211}}}}{{efn|group=lower-roman|name=Gelvin2014|Gelvin wrote: "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some 'other'. Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose. As we have seen, Zionism itself arose in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe. It would be perverse to judge Zionism as somehow less valid than European anti-Semitism or those nationalisms. Furthermore, Zionism itself was also defined by its opposition to the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants of the region. Both the 'conquest of land' and the 'conquest of labor' slogans that became central to the dominant strain of Zionism in the Yishuv originated as a result of the Zionist confrontation with the Palestinian 'other'."{{sfn|Gelvin|2014|p=93}}}} [[Romantic nationalism]] in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] had helped to set off the [[Haskalah]], or "Jewish Enlightenment", creating a split in the Jewish community between those who saw Judaism as their religion and those who saw it as their ethnicity or nation.{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=29–31}}{{sfn|LeVine|Mossberg|2014|p=211}} The 1881–1884 [[anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire]] encouraged the growth of the latter identity, resulting in the formation of the [[Hovevei Zion]] pioneer organizations, the publication of [[Leon Pinsker]]'s ''[[Autoemancipation]]'', and the first major wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine – retrospectively named the "[[First Aliyah]]".{{sfn|Rhett|2015|p=106}}{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=31–32}}{{sfn|LeVine|Mossberg|2014|p=211}}

[[File:The "Basel Program" at the First Zionist Congress in 1897.jpg|thumb|left|The "[[Basel program]]" approved at the 1897 [[First Zionist Congress]]. The first line states: "Zionism seeks to establish a home (''Heimstätte'') for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law"]]

In 1896, [[Theodor Herzl]], a Jewish journalist living in [[Austria-Hungary]], published the foundational text of political Zionism, ''[[Der Judenstaat]]'' ("The Jews' State" or "The State of the Jews"), in which he asserted that the only solution to the "[[Jewish Question]]" in Europe, including growing anti-Semitism, was the establishment of a state for the Jews.{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=34–35}}{{sfn|Rhett|2015|pp=107–108}} A year later, Herzl founded the [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]], which at its [[First Zionist Congress|first congress]] called for the establishment of "a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law". Proposed measures to attain that goal included the promotion of Jewish settlement there, the organisation of Jews in the [[Jewish Diaspora|diaspora]], the strengthening of Jewish feeling and consciousness, and preparatory steps to attain necessary governmental grants.{{sfn|Rhett|2015|pp=107–108}} Herzl died in 1904, 44 years before the establishment of [[State of Israel]], the Jewish state that he proposed, without having gained the political standing required to carry out his agenda.{{sfn|Cleveland|Bunton|2016|p=229}}

Zionist leader [[Chaim Weizmann]], later President of the World Zionist Organisation and first [[President of Israel]], moved from Switzerland to the UK in 1904 and met [[Arthur Balfour]] – who had just launched his [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1905–1906 election campaign]] after resigning as Prime Minister{{sfn|Weizmann|1949|pp=93–109}} – in a session arranged by [[Charles Dreyfus]], his Jewish constituency representative.{{efn|group=lower-roman|name=Defries|Defries wrote: "Balfour had, at the least, acquiesced in Chamberlain's earlier efforts to assist the Jews in finding a territory to establish a Jewish settlement. According to his biographer he was interested enough in Zionism at the end of 1905 to allow his Jewish constituency party chairman, Charles Dreyfus, to organise a meeting with Weizmann. It is possible that he was intrigued by the rejection by the Zionist Congress of the 'Uganda' offer. It is unlikely that Balfour was 'converted' to Zionism by this encounter despite this view being propounded by Weizmann and endorsed by Balfour's biographer. Balfour had just resigned as prime minister when he met Weizmann."{{sfn|Defries|2014|p=51}}}} Earlier that year, Balfour had successfully driven the [[Aliens Act 1905|Aliens Act]] through Parliament with impassioned speeches regarding the need to restrict the wave of immigration into Britain from Jews fleeing the Russian Empire.{{sfn|Klug|2012|pp=199–210}}<ref>[[Hansard]], [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1905/may/02/aliens-bill-1 Aliens Bill]: HC Deb 02 May 1905 vol 145 cc768-808; and [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1905/jul/10/aliens-bill Aliens Bill], HC Deb 10 July 1905 vol 149 cc110-62</ref> During this meeting, he asked what Weizmann's objections had been to the 1903 [[Uganda Scheme]] that Herzl had supported to provide a portion of [[British East Africa]] to the Jewish people as a homeland. The scheme, which had been proposed to Herzl by [[Joseph Chamberlain]], [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]] in Balfour's Cabinet, following his trip to East Africa earlier in the year,{{efn|group=lower-roman|Rovner wrote: "In the spring of 1903 the fastidiously dressed sixty-six-year-old secretary was fresh from a trip to British possessions in Africa&nbsp;... Whatever the genesis of the idea, Chamberlain received Herzl in his office just weeks after the Kishinev pogroms. He fixed Herzl in his monocle and offered his help. "I have seen a land for you on my travels," Chamberlain told him, "and that's Uganda. It's not on the coast, but farther inland the climate becomes excellent even for Europeans… [a]nd I thought to myself that would be a land for Dr. Herzl." "{{sfn|Rovner|2014|pp=51–52}}}} had been subsequently voted down following Herzl's death by the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905{{efn|group=lower-roman|Rovner wrote: "On the afternoon of the fourth day of the Congress a weary Nordau brought three resolutions before the delegates: (1) that the Zionist Organization direct all future settlement efforts solely to Palestine; (2) that the Zionist Organization thank the British government for its offer of an autonomous territory in East Africa; and (3) that only those Jews who declare their allegiance to the Basel Program may become members of the Zionist Organization." Zangwill objected… When Nordau insisted on the Congress's right to pass the resolutions regardless, Zangwill was outraged. "You will be charged before the bar of history," he challenged Nordau… From approximately 1:30&nbsp;p.m. on Sunday, July&nbsp;30, 1905, a Zionist would henceforth be defined as someone who adhered to the Basel Program and the only "authentic interpretation" of that program restricted settlement activity exclusively to Palestine. Zangwill and his supporters could not accept Nordau's "authentic interpretation" which they believed would lead to an abandonment of the Jewish masses and of Herzl's vision. One territorialist claimed that Ussishkin's voting bloc had in fact "buried political Zionism"."{{sfn|Rovner|2014|p=81}}}} after two years of heated debate in the Zionist Organization.{{sfn|Rovner|2014|pp=51–81}} Weizmann responded that he believed the English are to London as the Jews are to [[Jerusalem]].{{efn|group=qt|According to Weizmann's memoir, the conversation went as follows: "Mr. Balfour, supposing I was to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?" He sat up, looked at me, and answered: "But Dr. Weizmann, we have London." "That is true," I said, "but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh." He ... said two things which I remember vividly. The first was: "Are there many Jews who think like you?" I answered: "I believe I speak the mind of millions of Jews whom you will never see and who cannot speak for themselves." ... To this he said: "If that is so you will one day be a force." Shortly before I withdrew, Balfour said: "It is curious. The Jews I meet are quite different." I answered: "Mr. Balfour, you meet the wrong kind of Jews".{{sfn|Weizmann|1949|p=111}}}}

In January 1914 Weizmann first met [[Edmond James de Rothschild|Baron Edmond de Rothschild]], a member of the [[Rothschild banking family of France|French branch of the Rothschild family]] and a leading proponent of the Zionist movement,{{sfn|Lewis|2009|pp=73–74}} in relation to a project to build a Hebrew university in Jerusalem.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|pp=73–74}} The Baron was not part of the World Zionist Organization, but had funded the [[Moshava|Jewish agricultural colonies]] of the First Aliyah and transferred them to the [[Jewish Colonization Association]] in 1899.{{sfn|Penslar|2007|pp=138–139}} This connection was to bear fruit later that year when the Baron's son, [[James de Rothschild (politician)|James de{{nbsp}}Rothschild]], requested a meeting with Weizmann on 25{{nbsp}}November 1914, to enlist him in influencing those deemed to be receptive within the British government to the Zionist agenda in Palestine.{{efn|group=qt|Weizmann's notes of the meeting described that: "[James] thought that the Palestinian aspirations of the Jews will find a very favourable response in Government circles, which would support a project like that, both from a humanitarian and an English political point of view. The formation of a strong Jewish community in Palestine would be considered as a valuable political asset. He therefore thought that the demands which only amount to asking for an encouragement of colonization of Jews in Palestine are too modest and would not appeal sufficiently strongly to Statesmen. One should ask for something which is more than that and which tends towards the formation of a Jewish State."{{sfn|Gutwein|2016|pp=120–130}} Gutwein interpreted this discussion as follows: "James's recommendation that the Zionists should not stop at the demand for settlement of Jews in Palestine, but radicalize their demands for a Jewish state, reflected the political contrast between the reformists, who were prepared to support settlement of Jews in Palestine as part of the reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, and the radicals, who viewed a Jewish state as a means of partitioning it. Although James contended that the demand for a Jewish state would help in gaining the British statesmen's support, in view of Asquith's and Grey's opposition to this demand, it seems that the inaccuracy if not the misleading tenor of James's advice was meant to enlist Weizmann, and through him the Zionist movement, to assist the radicals and Lloyd George."{{sfn|Gutwein|2016|pp=120–130}}}}{{sfn|Schneer|2010|pp=129–130|ps=: "Baron James urged him&nbsp;..."}} Through James's wife [[Dorothy de Rothschild|Dorothy]], Weizmann was to meet [[Rózsika Rothschild]], who introduced him to the [[Rothschild banking family of England|English branch of the family]]{{snd}}in particular her husband [[Charles Rothschild|Charles]] and his older brother [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Walter]], a [[zoology|zoologist]] and former [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP).{{sfn|Schneer|2010|p=130}} Their father, [[Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild]], head of the English branch of the family, had a guarded attitude towards Zionism, but he died in March 1915 and his title was inherited by Walter.{{sfn|Schneer|2010|p=130}}{{sfn|Cooper|2015|p=148}}&nbsp;

Prior to the declaration, about 8,000 of Britain's 300,000 Jews belonged to a Zionist organisation.{{sfn|Stein|1961|pp=66–67}}{{sfn|Schneer|2010|p=110}} Globally, as of 1913 – the latest known date prior to the declaration – the equivalent figure was approximately 1%.{{sfn|Fromkin|1990|p=294}}