Israel and the Palestinians: 4. The Balfour Declaration to the Arab Revolt

In the fourth of 10 programmes tracing the history of the Middle East conflict, presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by Gudrun Kraemer, professor of Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin, author and historian James Barr and Eugene Rogan, professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University. They begin by discussing the origins, significance and consequences of the Balfour Declaration, Britain’s expression of support for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine. They go on to look at the establishment of the British mandate in Palestine, the changing demography of the country as Jewish immigration increased in the inter-war years, the causes and consequences of the Arab Revolt against British rule which broke out in 1936, and the Peel Commission report of 1937 – an early proposal for a “two-state solution”.

(Photo: The Rt Hon Arthur James Balfour, creator of the Balfour Declaration, which provided for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine 1917. Credit: Bridgeman/Getty Images)