The Balfour declaration was not a controversial document in 1917 when it was written.

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In 1917, Arthur James Balfour, British foreign secretary, submitted a declaration of intent, known as the Balfour Declaration, to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

CNN: Monday,

They include hard-boiled history, such as a review of how the confused motives of the British government's 1917 Balfour Declaration first laid the ground for the conflict.

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His aspirations foundered on the rocks of British and French colonial ambition, notably the twin reefs of the notorious Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917.

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It was not until World War I, when British forces were at the gates of Jerusalem, in November, 1917, that the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, anxious for Jewish support in the war, issued his epic yet ambiguous Declaration.

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