The Guardian Lists Support for Balfour Declaration As One of Their “Worst Errors of Judgment”

The Guardian newspaper released a list of their “worst errors of judgment” over the past 200 years on May 7, which included their support of the Balfour Declaration.

The article, which was written by their chief lead writer Randeep Ramesh, stated: “When Arthur Balfour, then Britain’s foreign secretary, promised 104 years ago to help establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, his words changed the world. The Guardian of 1917 supported, celebrated and could even be said to have helped facilitate the Balfour declaration.”

Ramesh goes onto say that the then-editor of The Guardian, CP Scott, was “blinded” to the plight of the Palestinians because he was a Zionist. “Whatever else can be said, Israel today is not the country the Guardian foresaw or would have wanted.”

Jewish groups and pro-Israel Twitter users criticized The Guardian for the piece. “The @Guardian says it regrets supporting the creation of Israel, listing it as one of the ‘worst errors of judgement,’” the American Jewish Committee tweeted. “Throughout history, Jews were murdered without cause. [Israel] is the one place Jews are truly safe. Failure to recognize the necessity of Israel is the true error.”

Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Journal, “The people of the United Kingdom should be proud that they had leaders at a pivotal time in history that saw that they had an opportunity to help an indigenous people return to its homeland.”

StandWithUs Israel Executive Director Michael Dickson tweeted, “The amazing, diverse, free and beautiful State of Israel, the world’s only Jewish country ‘is not the country The @Guardian would have wanted.’ Thank God.”

Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl said in a statement that The Guardian’s decision to list their support for the Balfour Declaration as one of their worst decisions is “breathtakingly ill considered.” “In its eagerness to disassociate itself in any way from its early support for Zionism, the Guardian chooses not to focus on the simple fact that had such a national homeland existed even a decade earlier than 1948, many millions of Jews — our close relatives — murdered in the Holocaust might still be alive.

“Alongside a safe and secure Jewish State, the Board of Deputies supports the creation of a Palestinian State, something the Balfour declaration does not negate. The Guardian would be best advised to advocate for this as well rather than its current position, which seems to be to do everything it can to undermine the legitimacy of the world’s only Jewish state.”

Middle East writer Yoni Michanie tweeted, “If a strong, independent, and self-reliant Jewish state is the source of their disappointment, imagine what living up to their expectations would look like.”

British freelance journalist David Collier also tweeted, “If the British hadn’t backtracked during the Mandate, 100,000s of more Jews could have been saved. Clearly the Guardian is upset Balfour and Zionism saved any Jews at all.”

He added in a subsequent tweet, “The upside is that #Israel will still be flourishing decades from now while the vile rag @guardian – will be gone, forgotten and in the trash where it and its #Antisemitism belongs.”

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