The Balfour Declaration

I always imagined the Balfour declaration, which committed Great Britain to the establishment of a Jewish homeland, to be some great long document describing in detail the reasons for it all. While doing some research trying to understand the history of the middle east, particularly the Palestine/Israel conflict, I found the declaration, which I can repeat here in full:

"Foreign Office,
2 November 1917

"Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's Government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet:

'His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.'

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour".

Notice that it commits to not doing anything to prejudice the rights of non-jewish people living there. Something that has never been fulfilled. This simple document has been a key cause of immense injustice and suffering. Despite the apparent even-handedness of it's committment to Jews and to existing inhabitants of Palestine, the intention was simply to impose a Jewish homeland onto the existing peoples, regardless of the their wishes.

In another letter, Balfour states this:

"... in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country, though the American (King-Crane) Commission has been going through the form of asking what they are. The four great powers are committed to Zionism and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land."

I am not surprised that the people of Palestine were and remain unimpressed.