Since when do the people who actually live in a region get to participate in deciding its future? The British always knew best. People in India and all their colonies were not ready yet to govern themselves. And besides England was in the midst of the first world war, geopolitics had to rule. So begat the Balfour Declaration. As if they owned the land, 100 years ago November 2nd, Lord Balfour declared there would be a “homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.” It also played nicely into Europe’s desire to deal with any “Jewish Problem,” give them somewhere else to go, not here. On this centennial, author and scholar Dan Freeman-Maloy explains the details of what happened and why it happened.