Britain issues the Balfour Declaration with the best of intentions.
It appoints as the first High Commissioner of Palestine a friend of the Jews. Indeed, he is himself a Jew: Herbert Samuel.
But Samuel quickly proves weak in the face of Arab pressure.
He appoints anti-Zionist Haj Amin El-Husseini as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and sets other dangerous precedents that will continue a downward slide in British-Jewish relations that had begun with Britain’s military administration.
Photo credit: Israel State Archives
