The Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917 was issued following the end of WWI when Britain was mandated by the League of Nations to administer Palestine after defeat of the Ottoman Empire. It consisted of a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Jewish community leader Baron Rothschild for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, reflecting the position of the British Cabinet about establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. It was a very brief, non-specific policy statement:
"His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors 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."
The statement was issued in response to heavy pressure from London Zionist movement leaders Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow. They had requested reconstitution of Palestine as “the Jewish national home" and were disappointed at this weaker statement.
Their disappointment notwithstanding, this declaration is frequently cited as legal authority by Zionists and their supporters for their seizure of Palestine by force, but of course the red highlighted part of the text is never mentioned.
Demand Freedom, Justice and Equality in the Holy Land