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Myth: The British Failed to Consult the Palestinian Arabs on the Balfour Declaration
(Facebook) Martin Kramer - True, they didn't consult, but why was that a failure? This was war, the British hadn't yet taken Jerusalem. Who in history has consulted the population of enemy territory in wartime? And they were the enemy. Palestinian Arabs didn't revolt against the Turks or help the Allies. Lloyd George later recalled: "We could not get in touch with the Palestinian Arabs as they were fighting against us." The British ruled an empire of 400 million people. They didn't consult Indians or Egyptians about their future, so why expect them to consult Palestinian Arabs? The writer was the founding president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, where he teaches the modern history of the Middle East.