A Question:

If the British didn't have either de jure or de facto control of the Holy Land when they issued the Balfour Declaration, then isn't it true that they didn't have a legitimate authority to make a pledge of the Holy land as a "Jewish National Home"? [submitted by John from Queens, New York]

An Answer:

The Balfour Declaration loses no legitimacy from the fact that the British were not in control of Palestine on the date of its issuance.

The British had no authority to create a Jewish National Home in land they did not possess, nor did they claim such authority with the issuance of the Balfour Declaration. They simply made a statement of policy, not dissimilar from a campaign promise. The Balfour Declaration was not a legally binding document.

After the end of the First World War, the League of Nations took up the question of Palestine. The League did not to give the British ownership of Palestine, and consequently, the British never gained authority to give the land away to anyone else. That authority rested with the League of Nations. The League decided to create a mandate which would be administered by a foreign power until the territory was ready for self-rule.

The Council of the League of Nations decided that the policy embodied in the Balfour Declaration was a good one, and that a Jewish national home should be created in Palestine. To further that aim, the Balfour Declaration was incorporated into the mandate's preamble. The League gave the British the responsibility for administering the territory, as laid out in Article 2 of the Mandate for Palestine. "The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self -governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion."

The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, and not the Balfour Declaration, was the basis under international law for the creation of the State of Israel.