Palestine Talks - AFOPA Members' Forum

Wednesday 3 October 2018
5:30 pm 7:00 pm

Palestine Centre For Peace 60 Frome Street Adelaide, SA, 5000 Australia (map)

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Welcome to a new initiative from the Australian Friends of Palestine Association - Palestine Talks - topical talks on all things Palestine.

WHEN: Wednesday, 3 October 2018, 5:30pm
WHERE: Palestine Centre For Peace, 60 Frome St, Adelaide SA

RSVP ESSENTIAL - AFOPA members only, plus one guest. Please RSVP via form below or call 08 8232 5273 (Mon-Fri, business hours).

Learn more about Palestine Talks here >>

#PalestineTalks #AFOPAaustralia

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The Balfour legacy and the future

With Dr David Faber, historian, Flinders University and AFOPA Executive Member.

In this session we will talk about the background and implications of the Balfour Declaration and ask where its legacy leaves our options for the future.

PRE-READING SUGGESTIONS:

Bernard Regan (2017). The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance - Superb. See also book review by David Faber.

Colin Anderson (2017), Balfour in the Dock: JMN Jeffries and the Case for the Prosecution - The story of the investigative journalist who exposed the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, and how he was buried by the Establishment.

David Cronin (2017), Balfour’s Shadow: A Century of British Support for Zionism and Israel - The sub-title says it all. The book also blows the cover on the foreign policy of Theresa May.

Alison Weir (2014), Against Our Better Judgement: How the US was used to create Israel - Extremely well argued and documented.

Jonathon Schneer (2010), The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict - A serious attempt to weigh competing interpretations of the Declaration.

PASSIA, Documents on Palestine - Tremendously authoritative collection re Ottoman times to the very recent past; could have done with somewhat better subediting.

Who was Arthur James Balfour, Arab News 02 NOV 2017 - Correctly describes the Declaration as `incendiary’. Interesting commentary, including citation of historian Bernard Regan on Lord Balfour.

Arthur Balfour, Wikipedia - At university, the young conservative aristocrat conveniently theorised the impossibility of reason knowing truth, declaring philosophically that `Nothing matters very much & few things matter at all’. As conservatism is the defense of the indefensible, this effete ethical & epistemological cynicism very much drew water to his ideological mill.

Balfour Declaration, Wikipedia - A reasonable starting point for your enquiries, though a poor place to finish them, like all Wikipedia entries, which are notoriously malleable & subject to interference.

Sykes-Picot Agreement, Fanack - The secret Franco-British convention of May 1916, also known as the Asia Minor Agreement, which had been in negotiation since late 1915, divided Greater Syria & Mesopotamia into spheres of influence. Nb the related contents link; Promises & contradictions.

McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Wikipedia - Precis of historical discussion of the diplomatic exchange from July 1915 to March 1916, punctuated by a meeting in Mecca in October 1915, by means of which the British Sirdar of Egypt induced the Sherif of the Hejaz to rise against the Ottomans, at war with the British Empire in alliance with the Central Powers. McMahon lead Hussein to believe that he countenance a postwar Arab Caliphate. Nb the link to the Letters, where they are summarised.

The McMahon Agreement, CN Trueman, The History Learning Site - Excellent source for testing Wikipedia.

Most of these books are available at the Palestine Centre.