(The Balfour Declaration / The Asia Minor Agreement)

The first document to designate Palestine as the national home for the Jews was part of a series of treaties that accompanied the West’s entry into the territory of the former Ottoman Empire. These agreements redrew the borders of the Middle East, invented new countries, and circumvented the Great Arab State—an idea that ISIS continues to fight for to this day.

The meteoric rise of Zionism and the more hesitant emergence of Arab nationalism are illustrated through the radical transformation of Jerusalem, from a backwater town on the fringes of the Middle East into a hub of international interest and Western longing.
(Burned in English subs)