3/1/1919 Emir Faisal and Chaim Weizmann reach an agreement on Palestine

Britain encouraged the Sharif Hussein of Mecca to revolt against the Turks by promising to establish to create an Arab kingdom out of Turkish Syria (the region between Anatolia and the Arabian peninsula). However the British later declared in favour of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine, partly to appeal to Jewish opinion in Britain and the United States. These promises are not entirely consistent with each other (or indeed with other arrangements Britain has reached with France). Now Chaim Weizmann, a leading British Zionist, meets in London with Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Hussain, to see if some kind of accommodation can be reached between then.

Weizmann and Faisal do indeed reach an agreement, signing a document in English (translated for Faisal by T.E. Lawrence, his British advisor). They commit to supporting Jewish immigration into Palestine while acknowledging the rights of Arabs living there and leaving the…