The British Anti-Zionist Alliance comprised 18 people.
At the end of the 19th century, just as Palestine was on the verge of a new era, Zionism emerged. Zionism was a foreign and alien phenomenon that had emerged in Europe in the 16th century as an evangelical Christian project. A significant number of Protestant Christians believed that the return of the Jews to “Zion” was the fulfillment of the promises that God had made to the Jews in the Old Testament. This would pave the way for the second coming of Christ and the beginning of the end of time.
They were the first to consider Jews not as followers of a religion, but as members of a nation or race. These people were especially active in the United States and Britain, and some of them held high positions.
In his book, “Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic,” Israeli historian Ilan Pappe shows how more than a century of lobbying has convinced British and American politicians to turn a blind eye to the regime’s flagrant violations of international law, grant it unprecedented military aid, and deny Palestinian rights.
Pappe is known for his critical views, particularly on the “Day of the Catastrophe” and the displacement of Palestinians. He taught at the University of Haifa for many years before emigrating to Britain due to political pressure. He is now a professor of history at the University of Exeter and director of the “European Centre for Palestine Studies.”
We have previously published the translation of chapters one and two of Pappe’s book for the first time in Iran.
Parts one, two, three, four, and five of chapter three of this book, titled “The Road to the Balfour Declaration,” were previously published. Section 6 continues:
Edwin Montagu lost his seat in the House of Commons in the 1922 election and retired from politics altogether. He died two years later, on 15 November 1924, a bitter and defeated man. Montagu was probably suffering from sepsis (blood infection) or encephalitis (brain inflammation), a disease unknown at the time.
The rebellion in the Rothschild family was started by Lionel Nathan de Rothschild. Lionel, a major in the British army, was a banker and Conservative politician who, in 1917, founded the British Jewish Anti-Zionist League with several others. This league was formed in opposition to the Balfour Declaration just after its publication, and its members included Sir Philip Magnus and Edwin Montagu.