MONTAGU, Sir Edwin. Anti-racist Jewish British MP: "[Zionism is]a mischievous political creed, untenable by any patriotic citizen of the United Kingdom"

Sir Edwin Montagu (anti-racist Jewish Brit & the second British Jew to enter the British Cabinet): "[Zionism is]a mischievous political creed, untenable by any patriotic citizen of the United Kingdom" and in opposing the Balfour Declaration of 1917 he was probably responsible for inserting the provision in the Balfour Declaration that said: "Nothing shall be done that may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country". In a memo to the British Cabinet, he outlined his accurate understanding of the Balfour Declaration: "...I assume that it means that Mahommedans [Muslims] and Christians are to make way for the Jews and that the Jews should be put in all positions of preference... When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens, and you will find a population in Palestine driving out its present inhabitants, taking all the best in the country..." (“Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing”: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jewish%20Intellectuals%20Who%20Opposed%20Zionism%20Israel%20Racism%20Injustices%20Apartheid%20Ethnic%20Cleansing.htm ).

Edwin Samuel Montagu (the only Jewish member of the cabinet headed by David Lloyd George, to which Balfour belonged, and only the third Jewish minister in British history) presciently commenting to the British Cabinet on the draft of the Balfour letter when he received it in August 1917 (1917) [the Balfour Declaration was sent to Lord Rothschild on 2 November 1917]: “I wish to place on record my view that the policy of His Majesty’s Government is anti-Semitic and in result will prove a rallying ground for Anti-Semites in every country in the world… it seems to be inconceivable that Zionism should be officially recognised by the British Government, and that Mr. Balfour should be authorized to say that Palestine was to be reconstituted as the "national home of the Jewish people". I do not know what this involves, but I assume that it means that Mahommedans and Christians are to make way for the Jews and that the Jews should be put in all positions of preference and should be peculiarly associated with Palestine in the same way that England is with the English or France with the French, that Turks and other Mahommedans in Palestine will be regarded as foreigners, just in the same way as Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine…Perhaps also citizenship must be granted only as a result of a religious test… I can easily understand the editors of the [anti-semitic] Morning Post and of the New Witness being Zionists, and I am not in the least surprised that the non-Jews of England may welcome this policy” (Edwin Samuel Montagu quoted in Gilbert Achcar, “Zionism, anti-semitism and the Balfour Declaration”, Open Democracy, 2 November 2017: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/zionism-anti-semitism-and-balfour-declaration/ ).