In 1917 Lord Curzon a British cabinet member as part of deliberations on what would be knows as Balfour Declaration wrote a memorandum expressing concern about what would become of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine who had occupied the country for the best part of 1 500 years and would not be content either to be expropriated for Jewish immigrants or to act merely as hewers of wood and drawers of water to the latter 1 neutrality is disputed citation needed British cabinet approved the Balfour Declaration which stated the government support for the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people with the understanding that nothing shall be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non Jewish communities in Palestine 1 2 The League of Nations reaffirmed this commitment in 1922 by establishing the Mandate of Palestine with the prerogative to carry out the Balfour Declaration 3 Neither partition nor statehood was mentioned as the means of accomplishing the National Home