The Churchill White Paper of 1922 described how Britain was going to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine. This policy was implemented in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. The White Paper and the Mandate make clear that Palestine would still be the national home of the existing Arab population. Churchill also quoted a resolution of the World Zionist Congress supporting this concept, mentioning a “common home” for Arabs and Jews and the “undisturbed national development of each of its peoples”. In other words, a ‘bi-national state’.
Until now, the full text of the resolution and accompanying notes has not been available on the internet. This is undoubtedly because it is an embarrassment to the modern Zionist propagandists who want us to believe that Palestine west of the river Jordan was given to the Zionists for a Jewish State, leaving Transjordon for the Arabs. Accordingly, it has been suppressed.
All that the Jewish Virtual Library has to say on the resolution is that Zionists expressed a wish “to live in relations of harmony and mutual respect with the Arab people”. The Wikipedia page “History of Zionism” says only that an “Arab-Jewish Entente was agreed”.
The following text is copied from the publication “Documents on Palestine Volume I, 1900-1947”, edited by Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, and published by PASSIA in 2007.
RESOLUTION PASSED AT THE 12th ZIONIST CONGRESS, PROPOSAL FOR AN ARAB-JEWISH ENTENTE, CARLSBAD, 4 DECEMBER 1921
We do thereby reaffirm our desire to attain a durable understanding which shall enable the Arab and Jewish peoples to live together in Palestine on terms of mutual respect and co-operate in making the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which will assure to each of these peoples an undisturbed national development.
In the spirit of this resolution the following notes have been drafted:
Taking note of the Balfour Declaration of November 2nd, 1917, and of its subsequent reaffirmation by His Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Principle Allied Powers: Deploring the misconceptions which still exists as to the manner in which the Balfour Declaration is to be construed:
1. The promise of a national home in Palestine made to the Jewish people by His Brittanic Majesty’s Government (and concurred in by the Princicple Allied Powers) is to be interpreted as a promise to secure the international recognition, under the guarantee of the League of Nations, of the right of the Jews to constitute themselves in Palestine as a national unit.
2. (a) The Jews on the one hand and the Arabs on the other are to be regarded as living side side on a footing of perfect equality in all matters, including the official use and recognition of their respective languages.
(b) In areas in which there is a mixed population, the rights of th minority are to be fully guaranteed, including the right of representation on the local administrative bodies.
(c) The existence in Palestine of the Jewish National Home is not to be a bar to the recognition of Palestine, when the time is ripe, as a self-governing commonwealth.
3. The Zionist leaders and the Jews of Palestine will support the demand for the development of self-governing institutions on a representative basis, it being clearly understood that the terms of this agreement will remain binding and inviolable, as will also the provisions of the Mandate, so long as the Mandate is in force.
4. The Zionist leaders and the Jews of Palestine will support the demand that non-Palestinian officials, with the exception of the High Commissioner, the Civil, Financial and Legal Secretaries, and the heads of the Principal Departments, shall be gradually replaced by Palestinians, due regard being had, in the case of District officials, to the Arab or Jewish character, as the case may be, of the population concerned.
5. Jewish immigration is to be limited by the capacity of Palestine, from time to time, to absorb it, but not otherwise. It is declared that there is not nor has there ever been any intention to disturb the existing Arab population or any part of it. The right of the Arab inhabitants and their descendants to the secure enjoyment of their homes and prosperity is unequivocally recognised and guaranteed.
6. (a) It is agreed that the Law of Nationality should recognize as citizens of Palestine all persons who being presently resident in the country at a date to be subsequently fixed, do not decline such citizenship, provided that no person owing allegiance to another state shall become a citizen until he has renounced such allegiance.
(b) It is further agreed that facilities should be provided for the acquisition of citizenship by persons who take up their permanent residence in Palestine, the qualifying period to be settled by common agreement with the Mandatory Power.
7. The Zionist Leaders and the Jews of Palestine will give all the moral and material support in their power to the various Arab States which have been constituted or are in the process of constitution and will, in general, co-operate whole-heartedly with the Arab people in its efforts to realise its national aspirations. The Arabs, on their side, will loyally work with the Jews in all matters appertaining to the establishment of the Jewish National Home.
It is the intent of both parties to lay the foundations of a generally Arab-Jewish understanding to the advantage of the Jewish people and to the Arab world as a whole and in the interest of the fruitful development of the Near and Middle East.
8. The Zionist Leaders categorically re-affirm their repeated assurances that they do not contemplate and have never contemplated the smallest interference with the religious rights and customs of the non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, for which they undertake to show the most rigorous and scrupulous regard. In particular, do they recognise the Moslem and Christian Holy Places as inviolable and formally repudiate the injurious and wholly unfounded suggestion that it is desired, directly or indirectly to trespass upon them.
The Arabs, on their part, undertake to show an equal regard for the Holy Places and the religious rights and customs of the Jews.
9. All the various Jewish Organisations, which have in view the economic reconstruction of Palestine on an extensive scale, will welcome the co-operation of the Arab inhabitants and undertake to afford them a full opportunity of participating in such economic endeavours as they may initiate.
NOTE ADDED AUGUST 2017
By chance, I came across a different wording of the Resolution in the book Encylopedia of the Palestinians, by Philip Mattar, at page 553. The book was published by Infobase Publishing in 2005, and is available for limited viewing in Google Books:
“The Twelfth Zionist Congress meeting in Carlsbad in September 1921 passed a resolution declaring: ‘The two great Semitic peoples united of yore by the bonds of creative civilisation will not fail in the hour of their national regeneration to comprehend the need of combining their vital interests in a common endeavour’. The resolution further called upon the executive ‘to redouble its efforts to secure an honourable entente with the Arab people on the basis of this Declaration and in strict accordance with the Balfour Declaration,’ and ended by ’emphatically’ declaring ‘that the progress of Jewish colonisation will not affect the rights and needs of the working Arab nation’.”