The Balfour Declaration and San Remo Conference: Legal Foundations for the Reconstitution of the Jewish Homeland-

The rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 did not emerge from a political vacuum. It was the culmination of both an ancient historical right rooted in the Jewish people’s continuous connection to the land of Israel and a modern legal recognition by the international community. Two pivotal milestones—the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1920 San Remo Conference—form the cornerstone of that legal recognition.

These events collectively transformed the age-old aspiration of the Jewish people to return to Zion into an internationally sanctioned right. They codified what had already been affirmed by history, faith, and moral justice: that the Jewish people were the indigenous nation entitled to reconstitute their national home in their ancestral land.

I. Historical Background: The Jewish Question and the Road to Recognition

For nearly two millennia after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Jewish people remained scattered across the globe. Yet, they never relinquished their spiritual and physical attachment to the Land of Israel. Through exile and persecution, Jewish prayers daily recalled Zion and Jerusalem, and Jewish communities maintained an unbroken presence in the land—from Tiberias and Hebron to Jerusalem itself.

By the late 19th century, amid rising European nationalism and intensifying antisemitism, the Zionist movement emerged to transform the ancient longing into political reality. In 1897, Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, declaring that “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law.”

This goal aligned with the principles of self-determination then reshaping the post-World War I world. Yet long before the founding of the United Nations, two crucial acts of international recognition began the process: the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the San Remo Conference of 1920.

II. The 1917 Balfour Declaration: Britain’s Pledge to the Jewish People

On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour issued a formal letter to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, representing the British Zionist Federation. This became known as the Balfour Declaration, and it read:

“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.”

This short statement—just sixty-seven words—marked a monumental turning point in Jewish and world history.

1. A Moral and Political Commitment

The Declaration represented the first official recognition by a major world power of the Jewish people’s right to national restoration in their ancestral land. Britain, then one of the most influential empires on earth, explicitly referred to “the Jewish people”—not merely individual Jews—as the subject of this right.

It also used the phrase “in Palestine,” acknowledging the territory’s geographic identity and historical continuity with ancient Israel. The word “reconstitute” would later appear in international agreements, indicating that this was not a new creation but a revival of a pre-existing nation.

2. Strategic and Humanitarian Context

Britain’s motivations were multifaceted—strategic, humanitarian, and ideological. During World War I, Britain sought to gain international Jewish support, particularly in the United States and Russia. But beyond wartime strategy, the declaration reflected a growing moral awareness within Western civilization of the Jewish people’s historic suffering and their rightful claim to return home.

Many British leaders, including Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Balfour himself, were influenced by biblical faith and Christian Zionism, viewing Jewish restoration as a fulfillment of divine prophecy. Balfour once wrote that the Jewish people’s return was “a great event in the history of mankind which is rooted in the very foundations of our common faith.”

3. International Endorsement

The Balfour Declaration was soon endorsed by the other Allied Powers—France, Italy, Japan, and the United States—signaling international consensus. In 1920, it was incorporated into the decisions of the San Remo Conference, and in 1922 it became part of the legally binding British Mandate for Palestine, ratified by the League of Nations.

Thus, what began as a political pledge evolved into international law.

III. The 1920 San Remo Conference: Transforming Promise into Legal Right

After World War I, the Allied Powers met in San Remo, Italy (April 19–26, 1920), to divide the territories of the defeated Ottoman Empire. Among the key issues was the future of Palestine.

At San Remo, the Supreme Council of the Allies formally adopted the Balfour Declaration as part of international law. The resolution incorporated the declaration’s language, explicitly recognizing the Jewish people’s right to establish their national home in Palestine.

1. The San Remo Resolution

The resolution stated:

“The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, the administration of Palestine… to a Mandatory Power,
responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

This clause became the legal charter for the British Mandate for Palestine. The resolution was not a mere expression of sympathy—it was a binding international decision granting the Jewish people recognition under emerging international law.

2. The Concept of “Reconstitution”

Crucially, the San Remo decision—and later the League of Nations Mandate (1922)—used the term “reconstituting” the Jewish national home. Article 2 of the Mandate explicitly stated that the purpose was:

“to secure the establishment of the Jewish national home in Palestine and to facilitate Jewish immigration and close settlement on the land.”

The word reconstitute acknowledged that the Jewish homeland had once existed and was now being legally restored, not newly invented. It confirmed the historical continuity of the Jewish nation from biblical times through exile to modern reestablishment.

3. Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant

The San Remo resolution applied Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, which provided for the administration of former Ottoman territories as “Mandates” to guide them toward self-government. The Jewish homeland, therefore, was recognized as part of this framework—preparing for Jewish sovereignty under international supervision.

IV. The British Mandate for Palestine (1922): Legalizing the Commitment

In 1922, the League of Nations formally approved the British Mandate for Palestine, incorporating the full text of the Balfour Declaration. The preamble affirmed:

“Recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

This was a powerful legal statement. It acknowledged the Jewish people as a nation, their historical connection to the land, and the legitimacy of their national re-establishment.

The Mandate granted the Jewish Agency the right to assist in immigration, land settlement, and economic development—laying the institutional groundwork for the future State of Israel.

It is worth noting that while the Mandate protected the “civil and religious rights” of non-Jewish communities, it made no mention of national or political rights for them, confirming that the territory’s political destiny was to serve Jewish self-determination.

V. The Legal Continuity: From San Remo to the United Nations

The 1920 San Remo decision and the 1922 Mandate established a binding legal precedent under international law. These obligations did not expire when the League of Nations was dissolved in 1946. Under Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, all Mandate obligations continued under the UN system unless modified by mutual consent.

Thus, the Jewish people’s right to reconstitute their homeland—recognized at San Remo—remains legally valid under modern international law.

When the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 in 1947 (the Partition Plan), it reaffirmed the same principle: that the Jewish people were entitled to a state in part of their historic homeland. Israel’s Declaration of Independence (1948) explicitly cited both the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate for Palestine as legal foundations for the reborn state.

VI. Moral and Historical Significance

The Balfour Declaration and the San Remo Conference were more than legal milestones—they were moral acknowledgments of historical justice. After centuries of persecution, expulsion, and statelessness, the Jewish people were recognized as a nation with collective rights, not merely a religious group.

The recognition of a Jewish homeland was consistent with the biblical covenant and the moral conscience of the postwar world. It represented the convergence of divine promise, historical continuity, and human law.

Christian and Jewish leaders alike viewed it as providential. Many saw in it the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:

“And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations” (Isaiah 61:4).

VII. Conclusion: From Promise to Law, from Exile to Restoration

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the San Remo Conference of 1920 stand as twin pillars of Israel’s modern legitimacy. The first expressed the moral and political will of the international community to restore the Jewish homeland; the second gave that will the force of international law.

Together, they recognized that the Jewish people were not strangers returning to a foreign land—but a nation reconstituting its ancient home, in accordance with history, faith, and justice.

From King David’s Jerusalem to the halls of San Remo, the story of Israel’s return is one of covenant fulfilled and law reaffirmed. The recognition of the Jewish right to their homeland is thus not only a matter of faith or memory—it is a matter of international legality and moral truth.

The Balfour Declaration lit the torch; San Remo enshrined it in law. And that flame continues to shine today—in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the living proof that history and justice can converge in the restoration of an ancient promise.

• “Faith and history meet in the hills of Judea and Samaria. Discover truth at Ubuntusafa.com.”

• “Israel’s right to exist is rooted not in power, but in promise.”

• “Justice, Not Colonialism — The Jewish Return to Judea” and “Equality Means Jews Too Have the Right to Live in Judea and Samaria”