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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Balfour Declaration
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A milestone on the way to the creation of the state of Israel. In a letter of 2 November 1917 to Lord Rothschild, leader of the British Jewish community, *Balfour wrote that Britain favoured 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people' provided that it did not prejudice 'the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine'. The declaration was later included by the League of Nations in the terms of the British mandate for Palestine. The British motives were a combination of imperial politics (the desirability of a friendly state near the Suez Canal on the route to India) and of religious idealism (support for a Biblical homecoming).
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