Page 11 - SAN REMO 100_PREVIEW BOOKLET

sufficient numbers of Jews would the British Mandate would function
emigrate to Palestine from Europe to encourage Jewish immigration
and elsewhere under the protection whilst at the same time postponing
of the Mandate, bringing with them self-determination until such time
their capital, skills and westernised as the Jews outnumbered the
outlook. indigenous Arabs in Palestine.
Only thus could a normalised, and
Indigenous self- legalised Jewish state be brought
determination about in due time. Lloyd George
Britain was further motivated by and Balfour, in their memoirs,
its commitment to the notion of claimed that this had always been
self-determination and proportional their intention, though they saw
representation of indigenous Britain’s role as only facilitating
peoples in the newly created these efforts, not as guaranteeing
post-war democracies. By 1920, the end result of Jewish statehood. 2
the Jewish population in Palestine
was in a clear minority. So, had Optimistic compromise
proportional representation been However, the British government
implemented immediately, then an was also keenly aware that Britain
Arab majority would have formed needed to appease the Arabs, as
the ruling government, whose first Chaim Weizmann and other leading otherwise there may be a concerted
goal would undoubtedly have been Zionists had persuaded Balfour rebellion by the masses of Muslims
to curtail if not completely stop and, to a lesser degree, the Prime throughout Britain’s colonies. So,
any further Jewish immigration. Minister David Lloyd George that, for Britain’s strategy to work, the
This would have resulted in the given the opportunity offered them wording of the Balfour Declaration
immediate stillbirth of Jewish hopes through the Balfour Declaration and and hence the aims of the Mandate
for an ultimate Jewish State. British Mandate, Jews in their would have to be ‘fudged’ and
millions would rapidly emigrate sufficiently ambiguous so that
“Britain was to the land of Israel, especially Britain could not be accused of
from Russia. If that happened, as
favouring either the Jews or the
committed to Weizmann sincerely hoped and Arabs. The anticipated hope
3
1
self-determination of expected, then in a decade or so and intention for the eventual
the Jewish population in Eretz Israel
emergence of a Jewish state could
indigenous peoples” would have increased to become therefore only be embedded into the
the majority. In such a scenario,
San Remo mandate commitment

SAN REMO 100 9