February 3, 1919
A delegation of the Zionist Organization led by Chaim Weizmann presents the case for a Jewish homeland in Palestine to the Paris Peace Conference at the conclusion of World War I. The statement, which includes suggested boundaries, proposes that the new British administration in Palestine should promote Jewish immigration and settlement, encourage self-government, and ensure religious freedoms.
A month earlier in Paris, Weizmann and Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, signed an agreement of mutual respect and cooperation. The agreement, negotiated over two meetings in 1918, proposed Jewish support for an Arab nation and Arab support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
On January 18, the peace conference approved the creation of the League of Nations, under which the mandatory system is to be established. Mandates place European powers Britain and France in charge of Arab areas that were part of the Ottoman Empire. Out of the mandates emerge the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.
Over the course of the Paris Peace Conference, Europe takes center stage, while the mandates for the Middle East are postponed, mostly because of the rivalry between Britain and France. Only after the British drop support for an independent Syria under Emir Faisal is an agreement reached.
The early drafts Weizmann and other Zionist leaders prepared for the conference sought majority rights for Jews in Palestine despite being a minority, but they eventually softened those demands. The statement presented February 3 accepts the proposed British Mandate and asks that “Palestine shall be placed under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment there of the Jewish National Home and ultimately render possible the creation of an autonomous Commonwealth, 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.”
On February 6, Faisal addresses the conference, with T.E. Lawrence serving as his translator. Both Faisal and Weizmann provide little consideration for the Arabs living in the area that would become Mandatory Palestine, west of the Jordan River, north of Sinai and south of Mount Lebanon. No Palestinian Arab speaks at the Paris Peace Conference.
