Lord Roderick on why the Balfour Declaration is so misunderstoodhttps://en.majalla.com/node/328066/documents-memoirs/lord-roderick-why-balfour-declaration-so-misunderstood
Lord Roderick on why the Balfour Declaration is so misunderstood
Al Majalla speaks to the great-nephew of the man whose name is attached to one of the most consequential edicts in the world, issued over a century ago
Eduardo Ramon
Lord Roderick on why the Balfour Declaration is so misunderstood
"This is the bit of paper that started it all,” Lord Roderick says, lifting a photocopy of the 1917 letter issued by his great uncle Arthur that promised "the Jewish people" a homeland in Palestine—a land that already had an indigenous population.
He does not claim expertise—“I am no historian, and I am no lawyer,” he cautions—but he inherits a surname that Arabs are painfully all too familiar with: Balfour.
Lord Roderick says the declaration was intended as a humanitarian gesture, as Jews were facing discrimination and pogroms in places like Europe and Russia. But he is equally insistent on a clause that is too often overlooked: the pledge that nothing should prejudice the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” In his view, that promise is not a footnote but a foundation—and, he argues, one repeatedly ignored.
Our conversation then quickly moves to the present-day situation in Israel/Palestine—especially in the wake of Israel's two-year war on Gaza following Hamas's October 7 attack—as well as Western states' growing recognition of Palestine.
Lord Roderick supports a two-state solution as a destination, but says more work needs to be done on the part of Palestinians, such as establishing more robust institutions and having more accountable leadership. As for the expansion of Jewish settlements, he says they run "contrary to the spirit" of the declaration, but shies away from outright condemnation. However, a close reading of the text, he argues, changes how one sees Britain's responsibility and its obligations owed to Palestinians.
He then sheds light on the Balfour family history. His grandfather, Francis Balfour, was an “Arabist” who served in the region and moved among figures such as Gertrude Bell and T. E. Lawrence. Lord Roderick speaks with open affection for Arab cultures and expresses frustration at how often the Declaration is invoked but not actually read. To him, critics ignore the letter's warnings and foreseen consequences.
Lord Roderick is neither an apologist nor an analyst, but he does inherit a surname that fills Palestinian and Arab hearts with grief, sorrow and anger. Al Majalla's interview with Lord Roderick provides rare insights from a family member of a man who gained infamy in the Arab world. In his London flat, he answers tough questions. Readers may not feel comforted by his answers, but an open-minded reading of his views on history's most disputed letter may still illuminate a path to two states, equal rights, and a durable peace.
Below is the complete transcript of the interview
Lord Roderick holding a copy of the Balfour Declaration in his London flat during an interview with Al Majalla.
What is this paper you are holding?
This is a copy of the letter from the British cabinet, signed by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, a prominent Jew in England, after extensive lobbying. I am no historian, and I am no lawyer, so please do not try to trick me into saying something I may not have completely accurate. But there was a lot of lobbying, all related to the United States, World War I, and the problem of immigration and refugees.
At the time, there was a lot of pressure because of the pogroms of Russian Jews who had been thrown out by the czar and many of whom ended up in the UK. Among these Jews was a Zionist faction that lobbied the British government to create a homeland for Jews in Palestine.
I don't know whether there was any move to make Palestine a Jewish state, because there's nothing in here that says anything about a state. It just says, ‘His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate this achievement...’
How are you related to Arthur Balfour?
He was my great-grandfather's brother. He died before I was born, but my father knew him very well. He spent a lot of time with him up in the family home in Scotland. But my father was only nine when Arthur died.
When was the first time you became aware of the Balfour Declaration?
I suppose it was during the 1967 war when I was working at the New York Herald Tribune. Before that, my knowledge of it was that it was a document hanging on the back of the lavatory door in our home. It was a copy, as the original is in the British Museum.
When was the first time you read it?
I was aware of it in 1967 and read it when the 1967 war happened. But the first time I really started to study it carefully, word by word, was during the Balfour Centenary celebrations in 2017.
The Balfour Declaration clearly had an effect on the Middle East, but that couldn't have been foreseen at the time. It's unfair that people blame everything on this letter.
Lord Roderick, the great nephew of Arthur Balfour
What did you feel when you read it?
American Jews helped support us in the Great War. So I've always looked at the Declaration as a humanitarian gesture. You can argue about who Palestine belongs to, but unless we're fanatics, we should agree that it sort of 'belongs' to the three Abrahamic faiths: Muslims, Jews, and Christians. But there's one particular lot of those three who seem determined that the other two shall not be in Palestine from the river to the sea.
Did you feel that the Declaration came at the expense of Palestinians?
Well, no, because it's very clear. It specified that 'nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine...'.
Which means the Palestinians?
Well, there were around 700,000 people in the whole of greater Palestine, which I think included bits of Syria and Jordan, that was mostly grazing land for sheep and goat herds, and so I don't think it was at all contentious.
There were a lot of Palestinians who took great exception to the increasing number of Jews coming and competing for land and everything else. They blew up trains and did all that sort of thing through the 20s, which isn't very well publicised.
Then, of course, you fast forward to World War II and the Holocaust. When Jews arrived in Palestine, they were so inventive. They formed the kibbutz and grew their own food. They really made the best of the land, which had previously been mostly just grazing land.
How do you feel being related to a man who arguably changed the whole history of the Middle East?
The history of the Middle East hasn't changed, but it clearly had an effect. But that couldn't have been foreseen at the time. I think it's very unfair that people blame everything on this letter, which merely expresses wishes.
An activist sprays red paint and then slashes a painting of Lord Arthur James Balfour at Trinity College in Cambridge on March 8, 2024.
I actually would like to meet the person who threw the orange paint over the portrait of Arthur Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge and have them read and clearly understand the Declaration.
Interestingly, certain sections of Israeli society didn't want me to be very involved in the centenary because I expressed that this section of the Declaration (that nothing should prejudice the "civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine) had been ignored, and what's happening in the West Bank directly contradicts it (the intentions of the Declaration).
Why should Arthur be blamed? I'm not sure, but that's what Palestinians like to do.
Do you think what's happening now in the West Bank and Gaza contradicts the spirit of the Balfour Declaration?
I'm not sure about Gaza, but the West Bank is definitely a contradiction, and as far as I can make out. Not so much Jerusalem, but the West Bank and the settlements and the way that they're being populated, that is completely contrary, in my amateur view.
Why?
Because they're pushing out the Palestinians, and the Declaration says that nothing should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine.
And you think Gaza is not part of Palestine?
No. Gaza is part of Palestine, but as soon as Israel was declared a state and approved by the United Nations, the Arabs declared war on Israel. There's always been a desire, from all I've read in history, for the Arab states to get rid of Israel.
So that resulted in a lot of Palestinian refugees going to Jordan and Egypt. Then Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed a very important waterway, which was very important for Eilat and that got Israel very worried about the attitude of the Arabs.
A handout picture release by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) on October 24, 2017, shows a portrait of then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour taken in 1917.
And then, of course, you had the 1967 war when all the Arab nations came together to attack Israel, and were roundly defeated. That's when Israel took command of the Golan Heights and effectively beat off the enemy, as it were. And that's what's landed us where we are today.
I think everything worked quite well until Israel got out in 2014, and then Gaza was left alone to run itself. If the history books are correct, Hamas and the Palestinians destroyed an awful lot of the productive resources which the Israelis had left behind.
Are you referring to the Israeli pullout of 2005?
I think it was 2014.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
All the greenhouses and everything. They were all destroyed. I mean, why? Were the Palestinian authorities keen on looking after their own population, or did they have another agenda? And it would seem that their agenda has been the annihilation of Israel. I mean, that's the stated policy, from the river to the sea.
What do you think about the recent recognition of the state of Palestine by the UK and other key Western states?
I don't understand what there is to recognise. I mean, show me on the map what we are recognising. I'm mystified how you recognise something that doesn't actually exist and hasn't been set up with its own borders, with the government. I might as well say, I recognise the independence of some island in the middle of the Indian Ocean that has no people on it.
I just think it's a meaningless gesture.
Do you mean a symbolic gesture?
Symbolic, not meaningless, you're right. But what's it going to achieve? My personal feeling is that the United Nations should have put peacekeeping forces on the ground 10 or 20 years ago, like they did in the Congo and Sudan. They've never really got involved. All they've done is pass endless motions against Israel. And this has just got Israel very, very animated and wishing to defend themselves. I'm not taking sides, but all the arguments are so lopsided.
A handout picture released by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) on October 24, 2017, shows a copy of the Balfour Declaration dated November 2, 1917.
What do you mean?
Well, I mean, everybody's always taking the side of the Palestinians. But Israel—and I might sound like I'm taking Israel's side—never attacked anybody except really in self-defence. You could argue that recently they murdered Iranians and Hezbollah members, but before that, Israel was always the one being attacked.
So, you are pro two-state solution?
Yes, but the two states have got to be put in place before you can seriously recognise them, with a properly elected democracy. I think I read somewhere that in the West Bank, they haven't had elections for 20 years because Mahmoud Abbas doesn't want them. Are these the arrangements which you wish to recognise in a state?
So, you consider the recognition of a Palestinian state a symbolic but are in favour of the two-state solution?
Yes, absolutely, but provided there is a government in Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank) that's not sworn to Israel's defeat and destruction. I'm told that Abbas doesn't want to have elections on the West Bank because he fears that Hamas will win. And that will just start everything all over again.
This is a faction who are regarded as terrorists by almost all countries in the UN, whose mission statement is the destruction of Israel.
If your great uncle were alive today, do you think he would have recognised Palestine?
No. I don't think he would have had any idea when this was written that the Palestinians would become so aggressive towards the immigrant population of Jews.
Do you think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza?
I looked up genocide the other day, and it is a wish to eliminate, to destroy, liquidate certain sections of the population. I'm not going to interpret whether what is happening in Gaza is an attempt to liquidate and kill all the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. But you know, Hamas could have stopped this very early on by releasing the hostages.
I wish more pressure had been brought to bear in the last two years on Hamas because it's been awful for the people of Gaza. I was told that some Arab countries have enormous investments in Israel in the tech space. They're thinking commercially, not ideologically. You know, the world's moved on.
Arthur James Balfour is seen during a visit to Tel Aviv, in this June 1, 1925, file photo released by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO).
Can you speak about your grandfather and his relationship with Arthur?
Francis Balfour, my grandfather and Arthur's nephew, was quite active in the region in his day. He was an Arabist and served as the military governor of Baghdad. He was friends with Gertrude Bell and Freya Stark (two female British explorers and travel writers), and he knew Lawrence (of Arabia) quite well.
I haven't read all his papers; they're all at Durham University. Sadly, I don't remember much about him as he died when I was still a boy, but I have a picture of him on his camel.
What do you think of Lawrence of Arabia?
Well, listen, he was a very romantic character. I've never studied him in detail, but I enjoyed the movie. But you see, you had all these people who were very romantically minded about Arabia. I mean, people find Arabians fascinating, you know, the deserts and the camel, what do they call them... 'the ships of the desert', and the way they lived, and the whole Bedouin way of life. It appealed to a lot of these authors.
Do you support Trump's peace plan for Gaza?
I support whatever suppresses Hamas and brings peace to the Middle East.
But part of Trump's plan is to establish a pathway for a Palestinian state...
Yes, because hopefully there will be some stability, and regimes will be in place to look after the Palestinian citizens themselves. And thus far, they're not being best served by their so-called governments.
Do you talk to British officials here?
No, not really. I'm not very keen. There's all this diplomatic speak, and their hands are usually tied in one way or another. And what can I achieve? I'm very flattered you've come to talk to me today. I mean, I'm nobody; I just happen to be the descendant of Arthur. What does what I think matter?
