Balfour Declaration: made by Arthur Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, in a letter to Lord Walter Rothschild in 1917. It was very short (117 words) and contained the following clauses "His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and (the national home should not prejudice) "the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". This was several months before British General Allenby had taken Palestine from the Turks.