---
title: Balfour Declaration:letter to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/library/balfour-declaration-1917/
description: 'Balfour Declaration: letter to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917 by Arthur James Balfour (1917-11-02), full text with provenance and rights.'
section: FRAME
---

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[Library](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/) · Letter

# Balfour Declaration:letter to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917

At a glance

The one-paragraph declaration of British Government policy on a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, in the letter that conveyed it.

- **Author:** Arthur James Balfour
- **Published:** November 2, 1917
- **Origin:** United Kingdom
- **Length:** 128 words

Full details

- **Edition:** Letter from Arthur James Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917, as transcribed by the Avalon Project at Yale Law School
- **Language:** English
- **Text source:** [The Avalon Project, Yale Law School (Lillian Goldman Law Library)](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp)
- **Text basis:** Transcription by the Avalon Project; the page does not name the copy it was typed from.
- **Rights:** An official letter of the British Foreign Secretary written in his official capacity and published in 1917, so in the public domain in the United States (published before 1931); UK Crown copyright in a published official work of that date has also expired. The Avalon site's design and navigation are not copied.
- **Rights checked:** October 2, 2026

On this page

- [The text](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/balfour-declaration-1917/#read)
- [Provenance and rights](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/balfour-declaration-1917/#provenance)
- [Where it appears in the archive](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/balfour-declaration-1917/#cited)

The letter of 2 November 1917 in which Arthur Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, told Lord Rothschild that the British Government "view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", with the proviso that nothing should prejudice "the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". The letter asks that the declaration be passed to the Zionist Federation. The archive's case study on the Ottoman holy war cites the letter alongside the other wartime documents on the region, and reads them side by side; the Library holds this one's text.

## The text

[Download as plain text](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/balfour-declaration-1917/balfour-declaration-1917.txt) 128 words, with the provenance header above the text

November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"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."

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur James Balfour

## Provenance and rights

- **Edition:** Letter from Arthur James Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917, as transcribed by the Avalon Project at Yale Law School
- **Text source:** [The Avalon Project, Yale Law School (Lillian Goldman Law Library)](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp)
- **Text basis:** Transcription by the Avalon Project; the page does not name the copy it was typed from.
- **Rights:** An official letter of the British Foreign Secretary written in his official capacity and published in 1917, so in the public domain in the United States (published before 1931); UK Crown copyright in a published official work of that date has also expired. The Avalon site's design and navigation are not copied. Checked October 2, 2026.
- **Changes made:** The Avalon page's navigation, header and footer removed. Wording, spelling and punctuation are the transcript's own.
- **Source file checksum:** `dbc49e093b3ca5e1…` (SHA-256 of the download this text was made from)

## Where it appears in the archive

- [Holy war on three sides: the Ottoman jihad call, Germany's Islam policy and Britain's Arab Revolt messaging (1914-1918)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/ottoman-holy-war-1914/)