Yasir Qadhi – The Balfour Declaration of 1917
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105 years ago, and the first week of November, one of the most drastic resolutions was passed. That continues to impact the OMA and has changed the course of global history. And every one of us should be aware of this. What am I referring to? I'm referring to the very unfortunate document known as the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration, we are commemorating I shouldn't say commemorating it is, quote unquote, the anniversary but for us, it's not a positive anniversary. It is this exact week, 105 years ago, November 1 week of November in 1917, when this document was drafted and sent, and today, shall I want to summarize what is this document? And why should every one of us be aware
of it? And what are some of the lessons of the points that we can learn from this document? So what is this document as we said, 105 years ago, this very day, this very week, 1917, the Balfour Declaration was issued, it is a letter written by the foreign secretary of England by the name of Lord author golfer. So it's called the Balfour Declaration, because his name is golfer. And he wrote to to somebody by the name of Lord Rothschild, we're going to discover who he is today. And in this letter, which was hand delivered from the ministry, to the house of this private citizen, again, the plot thickens, the government expresses its interest to create a national homeland for the Jewish
people in the land of Palestine. This is what is known as the ball for declaration. And of course, from this declaration, this was the beginning of a series of events that culminated in the creation of the State of Israel. This is where it begins 1917 November right here. So how did this come about? Remember, at the turn of the century, less than 3% of Palestine was inhabited by Jewish people 97% of this region was Muslim and Christian, the majority Muslim and there was a healthy percentage of Christians from the time of the Crusades, so I didn't know you will be allowed the Christians to live there. And they were also some Jewish people 3%, local, indigenous out of Jews,
they spoke out because the language they were out of Jews living in peace and harmony, no problems in that region. So how could this letter come about? That is saying in this 3% Jewish land, we're going to make it an entire Jewish land. This is what the Balfour Declaration is. And in order to understand this, we need to go back and contextualize what is happening 1917 World War One is well underway, World War One has already begun three years ago, and the allied forces are in deep war against the opposite side. And the allied forces of course, primarily England is the superpower at the time. As you should all know, America was not yet a superpower. It was the United Kingdom, World
War One and world war two would change and America becomes a superpower because England diminished because World War One destroyed the massive kingdom and Empire, United Kingdom and then World War Two created a vacuum and America rises up in that vacuum. World War One, America has not gotten involved. 1917 and America's neutral. America is not on the side of the allies. So England is deep in quagmire, and it is fighting battles across the region, and especially in Muslim lands, and the Ottoman Empire has sided with the enemies of England and that is Germany. So the Ottoman Empire and the Germany's the Austro Hungarian forces will have case the Qaiser the Kaiser of Germany is siding
with the Ottomans and the British are on the other side. 1917 comes around, and this letter is silently really secretly released. What is the public backdrop? The public backdrop is England has promised the Arabs England has promised the Sharif of Mecca that if you break away from the Ottoman Empire, we will give you enough for all over again and out of a lava spanning from Baghdad all the way to Yemen, it will be yours. This is the public well known promise. You all know you've heard of that famous spy that was sent to Arabia, what was his name? Who can say who knows the name of the spy? Lawrence of Arabia, right? This Lawrence of Arabia turns out to be a secret agent of the
British right. Lawrence of Arabia is sent to convince the Sharif of Mecca who is the Sharif of Mecca, the great great grandfather of the current Kingdom of Jordan, the city of Makkah, he is his family has been ruling Makkah for 800 years and he is a direct descendant of the other bait. He's a he's a either way he's a descendant of the Allah one. And he's ruling ruling Makkah for 800 years. Now. The British their tactic is divide and conquer
We all know this right? So they say who can be a counterweight to the Ottomans. The only person they can think of is the Sharif of Mecca. He has the lineage, he has Makkah, he has some prestige. So they say to him, If you publicly go against the Ottomans Breakaway, and you declare jihad against the Ottomans, we're going to give you this entire region minus Constantinople, Istanbul minus the Ottoman land, the Arab lands, the glorious halacha of the Abbasids. The OMA yours shall return to you. And this was a public promise, everybody knew it. And so the sheriff broke away, and the sheriff declared war against the Ottomans. And the presumption or the assumption was okay, now that
I'm on your site, oh, England. Now, when we win when you guys win, I'm going to take over this entire region, which includes being the sham, it includes Philistine So Monica Medina, Jerusalem will all be under this new Khilafah. The sheriff thinks that the sheriff didn't realize the British play very vital games, the British have very cunning tactics, and unbeknownst to the sheriff of Makkah, the British already had a secret plot. This plot only comes to light afterwards. It is called the Sykes picot agreement. The Sykes picot agreement is a secret plot between Russia, Russia at the time was on the side of the allied forces, you have to understand Russia, World War two
switches and World War One is on the side of England, Russia, England and France. All three agree that once we went over the Ottoman Empire, we're going to carve the Middle East, and each one of us is going to get a share of the price. So the Arabs have been lied to, and they didn't know this. Now, these two documents one public one private. Now a third one private comms, triple crossing, the British double crossed the French and the Russians as well. Literally, this was their tactic. And they sent this secret document to Lord Rothschild known as the Balfour Declaration. The question arises why what's going on? Why promise a Jewish homeland during World War One? What is the point
behind this as we're going to talk about for the next few minutes, you have to understand one thing.
The notion of a Jewish homeland was something very recent, believe it or not barely 1015 years before World War One. This notion is now becoming popular in Europe. And the founder of this notion, Theodore Hertzel, announces this in Switzerland in the 1880s. In the late 1890s, literally 10 years before World War 118 90s. A conferences can zip convened, it is called the Global you know Zionist Confederation. And the notion of creating a Jewish state is launched.
Unbelievably, the bulk of Jewish people in the world rejected it. It sounds weird to us, but I'm not making this up. Look it up 99% of the Jewish people around the world, shrug their shoulders and didn't care. They literally said what are you doing? We're comfortable. American Jewish people in particular did not sign up to the Zionist program. Only a few very secular minded politicians and wealthy people of Europe. They had this notion. They tried to lobby and it fell flat. Nothing happened. Hertzel dies and the second in charge. His name is Chaim. Weizmann Chaim Weizmann takes charge claim Wiseman is a chemist, he moves to England, he becomes a professor of chemistry and
Manchester. And he patents certain products. Long story short, is it the production of acetone I think it is which is needed in bombs. And so World War One happens, his patents become popular, he becomes multibillion or he becomes filthy rich, because he has invented a procedure to invent bombs, basically making it simplistic. So he becomes extremely wealthy. With that wealth. He develops ties with the British government, wealth changes everything. Wealth changes everything. And he becomes friends with the Prime Minister at the time, who was the prime minister in 1905. Lord ball four was the Prime Minister. A lot of people don't know this. The one who's going to become the foreign
secretary in 1917 10 years before this. He's actually the Prime Minister of England. A lot of people don't know this right. He was prime minister for two and a half years. Then he resigned and he remained a minister. He resigned from being a prime minister. He remained a minister and then he became Foreign Secretary, but he was Prime Minister when he was Prime Minister, this guy Chaim Weizmann, becomes friends with him, pitches to him the idea of Zionism and Lord golfer signs on he becomes a Christian Zionist, one of the first of Christian Zionist, but it's 1905. Nothing can happen. He likes the idea, but he doesn't do any
During World War One happens, and now the opportunity presents itself. So Wiseman goes to golfer and says, Hey, if you promise a homeland, this is going to aid you guys in World War One, it will help you guys in your efforts in this great war. And so Lord golfer decides to start the engineering behind the scenes. And he goes to the war cabinet. And he then issues this ball for declaration. What is especially important for us to make note of this was not debated in British Parliament, the Parliament did not come together and talk about the ball for declaration. Why? Because it was the time of war. And during times of war, what happens? The government seizes power even after 911 What
happened, Bush said, executive authority Give me all your power. That's what happens. People panic and war and war people forget about democracy and war people forget about voting and what not. They just want to get things done. So because it was war, this issue was not debated in Parliament, rather a small group of ministers on the aptly called war committee, the war committee five people and amongst them is Lord golfer, again ball for used to be Prime Minister, even though he's now the foreign secretary. His power is a lot imagined he used to be Prime Minister imagine his connections imagines his clout. So Lord ball for make sure this war cabinet issues this agenda this ball for
declaration, the British government, the British Secretariat did not debate this issue. It was not put up to a vote. It was done by the war committee because it was 1917. A time of war. Now, why send it to this person called Rothschild? Who is a private citizen to get this memoir from the government? Isn't it strange that the government is releasing a document and sending it to a private citizen to tell them Hey, mister private citizen, we're going to create, you know, a land for the Jewish people. Well, who is this Rothschild? The Rothschild family, the Rothschild family? And again, it's difficult to talk about this because automatically whenever you say these types of
things, people say, Oh, you're being anti semitic or something. No, this is not anti semitic. This is a factual statement. The Rothschild family is the richest family in human existence right now. And it has been for the last 200 years. The Rothschild family is worth half a trillion dollars, I repeat half a trillion dollars. It is a elite dynasty. Now, here's where the conspiracy theories come. I'm not saying they're a cabal, I'm not saying they're Illuminati. It's a factual statement. They're an extremely wealthy family that date back to the 1700s. Their ancestors, or their Jewish Europeans, their ancestors were the first people to open up an investment bank. And they have their
branches in Switzerland, in England and every European country. And to this day, the Rothschild family is well known go Google and read up their Wikipedia page. It's not a conspiracy theory. The Rothschilds are the most wealthy family in the world. Why haven't many of you heard of them, because they're also extremely politically savvy, and they stay out of the news. They don't get involved in actual politics. They don't run for office, by the way, they have the word they don't need to run for office right there. You don't hear about them because they keep out of the news, but go Google them and find out their investment they are well known. So this Roth child that he sent this letter
to was the informal, most prestigious Jewish British citizen, the one who was admired by the Jewish people of England, and he was also the president of the Jewish Zionist Federation. That's why he was sent the letter that the letter is being sent to him that we are now going to look favorably upon the creation of a place for the Jewish people in Palestine. Now, of interest here is that the ball for declaration intentionally used very ambiguous language, I quote you from the document from the declaration, the original Declaration, you can still see it in the museum, you can actually find it on the Wikipedia page, the actual original type document, it is still there. The document says and I
quote from it, that the British government listen to this views with favor the establishment of a national home for Jewish people and quote, look at the language views with favor. It's not legal language here. It's an emotion. It's not legal language. The UK the British government views with favor what type of legal languages this also let's look at what they say that national home, not national state. Why? Why did they have this ambiguous language historic
unions point out, they knew that this document would cause a backlash from the parliament. They knew that if they're going to say to the world that we're going to create a Jewish nation, a state, it's going to cause problems. So they didn't say the Beaufort declaration does not state that England is going to establish a country. No, look at it. views with favor, national home, purposely ambiguous right. Now, the intention was a state. But the language does not state that you understand what I'm saying you write the intention, you're going to carve out a country, but the language is very vague, and it was done on purpose. Also, in the document, it says that
it explicitly states that the local population of non Jews, their rights must not be trespassed against, they say non Jews, they don't say Muslims and Arabs, 95% of the people are Muslim. It says the non Jewish population, so as again, not to bring in explicitly that the majority are going to be Muslim over there. Now the question arises, and this is the big question, why? Why would England promise? Why would the UK promise the Zionist lobby that they're going to create a land in for the stain? What is United Kingdom gaining out of this? I'm going to be very academic here and tell you, frankly, nobody knows. The theories are many. I'll give you some of them, because it boggles the
mind. Why would England in 1917 want to promise 1% of the Jewish public because remember, 99% of the Jewish people were not interested in a state right now. Remember, Nazi Germany still hasn't happened. Hitler hasn't even come to power. He's not even known. This is 1917 American Jews and European Jews have no interest in leaving their lands, they're living comfortably. Why would we go somewhere else risk our lives that people aren't going to like us. It wasn't popular. So why would the English government the British government adopt this plan? There are so many theories, frankly, nobody knows for certain what is this, of these theories is that they felt the deep British
government felt that they would get the global support of the Jewish Diaspora and that the American Jews, the British Jews would then support the efforts of World War One. And people like him, Wiseman, who was very wealthy, like Lord Rothschild, who was a multimillionaire that their finances and their patents would help World War One. That is a theory. And you know, it makes sense. At the same time, one could point out that these are few individuals and the bulk of World Jewish people are not interested in Zionism. So one can say that this didn't seem like a wise move. Others have pointed out that during this timeframe, if you know your history, the Czar's of Russia were
overthrown, the Bolsheviks come to power, and many of the key Bolsheviks were actually of a Jewish background. So another theory, England wanted to appease the Russians. By this, they're worried about this new power, they're not sure will the Bolshevik side with them or against them. So this is a theory, Allah knows best? A third theory is that they wanted to appease to the German Jews. So we have the American Jews, the British Jews, the German Jews, the Russian Jews, the German Jews under vil Vilhelm. The third Kaiser Wilhelm the third. So at this time, remember, there is no Nazi Party in Germany, this is 1917 German Jewish people, by and large, are living comfortable lives. So their
support is for the Kaiser, which is the German site, they feel maybe the British feel if we give them Palestine, they might support us. All of these are theories. I'm going to conclude with the fourth one, which probably makes the most sense. In the end of the day to this day, historians are scratching their heads, why would England do this? Right? I'm going to conclude with the fourth one, and that is, they're not actually making an appeal to the World Jewish Federation's at all, actually, their appeal is to Christians,
and to Christians who sympathize with Zionism, and in particular, to this country that we're living in right here.
Because America had not yet entered the war
and Christian Zionism what is Christian Zionism? Christian Zionism is what exactly what it is. These are people of a Christian background, who for religious reasons, want the creation of Israel, because they think is going to expedite the coming of Jesus Christ. Right. And this movement was now spreading in America. So a fourth theory is that
This golfer declaration is actually meant to tip the scales of Christians here in America. And the administration here was and still is full of Christian Zionist, as you're aware, Trump appeals to them all the time. You remember he moved the capital to Jerusalem. Why did he do this for the Christians? I undisplaced. Right. So, the notion therefore, the Balfour Declaration was meant to persuade America to enter the war and to side with the UK against the German forces. This might have more sense because otherwise, the other previous theories don't really make any sense. You can also add without a doubt, racism played a factor here. What do I mean by this? The anti Arab and the anti
Muslim sentiment of the British people, right? The anti Arab and the anti Muslim sentiment of the British people that we don't care about them. We care more about people of our background ethnicity, even though by the way, there was a lot of anti semitism, but between anti semitism and anti Muslim, they will prefer you know, the Semites over the Arabs, even to Arabs are Semites. But again, my point to you, right, they hate both, but they hate one less than the other. And because of this, they're going to side with the Zionist population over the Arab population to conclude all of this. Ironically, whatever the motivations of England, none of them were fulfilled. There was no support
from the German Jews, the European Jews, the American, even they did not join the war. Because of the Balfour Declaration, the Americans joined for another reason because of the Lusitano being sunk and whether that was a whole different reason altogether. So the British did not gain anything by the Balfour Declaration. On the contrary, it created a set of problems that we're dealing with to this day. Because of the ball for declaration, more and more people were allowed to emigrate to fell asleep. And they were immigrating so fast that even England had to stop the quota and say no more immigration. And when England said no more immigration, the Jewish people of Palestine became
terrorists, well known, and they started killing British soldiers. And they engineered a very massive bombing in the King David Hotel, infamous warming over 100 people were killed. Most of them were British. And the person who led this bombing, Menachem Bagan eventually becomes their Prime Minister of Israel, irony, the irony of ironies, right? So the Jewish people are the associate designers people start fighting the British, the British decide to leave, and they hand over Palestine, to the League of Nations and say, we have nothing to do with it. You guys decide. And the League of Nations in 1947 1948, they vote and they say hello. So we're going to create Israel. And
because the Muslim world at the time and the Arab world did not have the type of political connections and the clout and the wherewithal to negotiate and to argue they're still new to the world of global politics. They didn't have a statesman. They didn't have land in a country, they didn't have representation. And the Zionist Federation did. The League of Nations voted in the State of Israel. And the rest, as they say, is history. Now, I have been saying for many weeks and months and years over here, how negative politics is and that doesn't change. It's not for righteous people. Good people, frankly, are corrupted by politics. Still, the world needs politics, whether I
don't like it or not. Politics is needed. People have to run the country, people have to run the world. And politicians accomplish what clerics and philosophers do not accomplish. Because came Wiseman was lobbying persistently, because the idea was planted in golfers head, because they had the clout and the wherewithal and the money because they had the influence. These political activists managed to get the ball for declaration passed, and because the Balfour Declaration was passed, the rest, as they say, is history. Politicians are not people, generally speaking, that have good piety and Taqwa, but those that are good amongst them accomplish much good and those that are
evil, accomplished, much evil. Bottom line, even if we are not involved directly in politics, we have to be aware, this is the world we live in, influence does pay off. And if you look at the history of the creation of that country, it's all about connections and influence and politics, and it's succeeded. It's not some Cabal, it's not some Illuminati, it was lobbying, it was money. It was a strategy and plan and it paid off. Some people amongst us have to do the same. If we wish to accomplish something positive. May Allah give them baraka and fair and good I personally don't want to be in that camp, but we have to have good politicians may Allah subhanho wa Taala plus all of us
and ease the pain of our brothers and follows thing was said on YT comm rahmatullahi wa barakato
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