Remembering the 1919 Faisal-Weizmann Agreement


January 3, 2025 

MEMO

The Faisal Weizmann Agreement 3 January 1919, signed by Emir Faisal (son of the King of Hejaz), and Chaim Weizmann (later President of Israel) as part of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 settling disputes stemming from World War I [Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images]

by Omar Ahmed
3umr27md

The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement was an early attempt to bring Arab and Zionist ambitions together in Palestine. Signed during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, it ended up having a lasting impact on the region, paving the way for Palestinian displacement and decades of conflict and occupation, which continues to this day.

What: The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement

When: 3 January 1919

Where: Paris, France

What happened?

When discussing the roots of the Palestinian issue, many people tend to focus on the 1948 Nakba (“Catastrophe”), when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homeland. Others point to the infamous 1917 Balfour Declaration as a key moment, laying the groundwork for the establishment of a Zionist state on historic Palestine. However, a lesser-known yet highly significant event occurred just two years later: the signing of the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement in 1919, which aimed to reconcile Arab and Zionist ambitions that would have profound consequences for the region.

Signed on 3 January 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference, the agreement was a pact between Prince Faisal of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz — the son of Sharif Hussein of Makkah and a prominent leader in the Arab nationalist movement — and Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organisation. Faisal agreed to support the implementation of the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, provided Britain fulfilled its World War One promises of Arab independence from Ottoman rule.

The agreement outlined cooperation between Arabs and Jews, envisioning a peaceful coexistence in Palestine and broader economic collaboration in the region.

This was expressed by the signatories who stated that they were “mindful of the racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people, and realising that the surest means of working out the consummation of their natural aspirations is through the closest possible collaboration in the development of the Arab State and Palestine.”

However, its underlying premise — that the aspirations of Arab nationalism and Zionism could coexist harmoniously — was fundamentally flawed. Arab leaders were largely unaware of the extent of Zionist territorial ambitions, while Zionist leaders saw the agreement as a strategic opportunity to secure a stronger foothold in Palestine, justified as a Biblical right.

This intent is evident in the agreement’s language: “All necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil.”

What happened next?

The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement proved to be a brief and fragile arrangement. Western colonial powers Britain and France reneged on their wartime promises to Arab leaders and, instead, carved up the Middle East under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. Palestine came under a British League of Nations mandate, while Syria and Lebanon were placed under French control. Arab nationalist aspirations were crushed, and tensions between Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine escalated, with massacres and acts of terrorism against the indigenous population sowing the seeds for decades of conflict.

The implications of this agreement — and its failure — were, and remain, far-reaching. For Palestinians, it represented a bitter and early betrayal of their aspirations for statehood. A report by Haaretz describing it as one of many Arab betrayals of Palestinians notes the irony of what followed: “Faisal left the Paris conference with a dreadful sense of betrayal. He himself had betrayed his Ottoman masters to fight alongside the British, only to be betrayed by the British after the war. He then tried to make amends.”

Faisal aligned himself with the Syrian National Congress in July of that year. The Congress rejected the French mandate over Syria, declared Palestine to be an inseparable part of Syria, and opposed Jewish immigration to Palestine.

“But it was too late. That year the French expelled Faisal by force from Syria, and three years later, Britain was given a [League of Nations] mandate to implement the Balfour Declaration in Palestine. As a compensation, the British installed Faisal as king of Iraq and his brother Abdulla as king of Jordan, while the Hejaz became part of Saudi Arabia.”

The failure of Arab nationalist ideals, compounded by British duplicity and Zionist settler-colonialism, contributed to a cycle of wars and uprisings, including the Arab-Israeli wars of the 20th century. Today, the ramifications extend to the occupation state’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and land-grabbing and expansionist policies, most recently in Syria after the toppling of the government by opposition forces. Moreover, the normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab states have done little to stem the tide of annexation, displacement and violence, and continued statelessness for the Palestinians.