Declaration to the Seven

The Declaration to the Seven was a document written by Sir Mark Sykes, approved by Charles Hardinge, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and released[1] on June 16, 1918[2] in response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables in Cairo that included members of the soon to be formed Syrian Unity Party, established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration and the November 23, 1917 publication by the Bolsheviks of the secret May 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France.[3] The memorandum requested a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia". The Declaration stated the British policy that the future government of the regions of the Ottoman Empire occupied by Allies of World War I "should be based upon the principle of the consent of the governed".[4]

## Significance of the Declaration

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Declaration to the Seven

The Declaration to the Seven is notable as the first British pronouncement to the Arabs advancing the principle of national self-determination.[5] Although the British sought to secure their position by adopting the Wilsonian doctrine of Woodrow Wilson, neither Britain nor France was prepared to implement their promises to the Arabs nor to abdicate the position won by victory over the Ottoman Empire.[6]

The document was not widely publicised. The Declaration may explain the action of General Edmund Allenby, who ordered a halt to the advance after the rout of Turkish forces outside Damascus and allowed the city to be captured by Arab forces in September 1918 after the Battle of Megiddo acting on instructions from London, thus bolstering the Arab claim to the independence of Syria whilst simultaneously undermining the French claims to the territory under the terms of the Sykes–Picot Agreement.[5]

## The Seven

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* Rafiq al-Azm;
* Sheikh Kamal al-Qassab;
* Mukhtar al-Sulh;
* Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar;
* Khaled al-Hakim;
* Fauzi al-Bakri (brother of Nasib al-Bakri, both members of Al-Fatat);[7]
* Hasan Himadeh.

## See also

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* Damascus Protocol
* Hussein-McMahon Correspondence
* Anglo-French Declaration

## References

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1. ^ "McMahon-Husain correspondence - Report of Arab-UK committee - UK documentation Cmd. 5974 (excerpts)/Non-UN document (16 March 1939)". 2008-06-18. Archived from the original on 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
2. ^ Elie Kedourie (2000). In the Anglo-Arab Labyrinth: The McMahon-Husayn Correspondence and Its Interpretations, 1914-1939. Psychology Press. pp. 295–. ISBN 978-0-7146-5097-5.
3. ^ Choueiri, Youssef M. (2000). Arab nationalism, a history: nation and state in the Arab world. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Pub. p. 149\. ISBN 0-631-21729-0.
4. ^ Friedman, Isaiah (2000). Palestine: A Twice-Promised Land? Vol. 1: The British, the Arabs, and Zionism, 1915-1920. New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A: Transaction Publishers. pp. 195–197. ISBN 1-56000-391-X.
5. ^ a b Paris, Timothy J. (2003). Britain, the Hashemites, and Arab Rule, 1920-1925: the Sherifian solution. London: Frank Cass. p. 50\. ISBN 0-7146-5451-5.
6. ^ Holt, P. M.; Ann Katherine Swynford Lambton; Bernard Lewis (1977). The Cambridge history of Islam. Cambridge, Eng: University Press. p. 392\. ISBN 0-521-29135-6.
7. ^ Isaiah Friedman (17 April 2018). Palestine: A Twice-Promised Land?. Taylor & Francis. pp. 311–. ISBN 978-1-351-29006-7.

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Key documents of Mandatory Palestine

1910s|

* Damascus Protocol
* The Future of Palestine
* McMahon–Hussein correspondence
* Sykes–Picot agreement
* Balfour Declaration
* Hogarth message
* Bassett letter
* Declaration to the Seven
* Anglo-French Modus Vivendi
* Anglo-French Declaration
* Faisal–Weizmann agreement
* King–Crane Commission report

1920s|

* San Remo Resolution
* Palin Commission report
* Paulet–Newcombe Agreement
* Haycraft Commission report
* Churchill White Paper
* League of Nations mandate
* Constitution
* Palestinian citizenship order

1930s|

* Shaw Commission report
* Western Wall Commission report
* Hope Simpson report
* Passfield white paper
* MacDonald letter
* Peel Commission report
* Woodhead Commission report
* White Paper of 1939

1940s|

* Biltmore Programme
* Harrison Report
* Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry report (Survey of Palestine)
* Statement of Information Relating to Acts of Violence
* Morrison–Grady Plan
* Bevin Plan
* UNSCOP
* Ad Hoc Committee
* UN Partition Plan
* American trusteeship proposal for Palestine
* Israeli Declaration of Independence

* History
* Timeline
* Aftermath

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Diplomacy and peace proposals in the Arab–Israeli conflict

Background|

* 1914 Damascus Protocol
* 1915 McMahon–Hussein Correspondence
* 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement
* 1917 Balfour Declaration
* 1918 Declaration to the Seven / Anglo-French Declaration
* 1919 Faisal–Weizmann agreement
* 1920 San Remo conference
* 1922 Churchill White Paper
* 1937 Peel Commission
* 1939 White Paper
* 1939 London Conference
* 1946 Morrison–Grady Plan
* 1947 Bevin Plan
* 1946–47 London Conference
* 1947 UN Partition Plan
* 1948 American trusteeship proposal

1948–1983|

* 1948 UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 194
* 1949 Armistice agreements / Lausanne Conference
* 1950 Tripartite Declaration
* 1967 Khartoum Resolution / UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 242
* 1973 UNSC Resolution 338 / UNSC Resolution 339
* 1974 Israel–Syria disengagement agreement / UNSC Resolution 350
* 1978 UNSC Resolution 425 / Camp David Accords
* 1979 UNSC Resolution 446 / Egypt–Israel peace treaty Palestinian autonomy talks / UNSC Resolution 452
* 1980 UNSC Resolution 478
* 1981 UNSC Resolution 497
* 1981–1982 Fahd Plan
* 1982 Reagan peace plan
* 1983 Israel–Lebanon agreement

1991–2016|

* 1991 Madrid Conference
* 1993 Oslo Accords
* 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement / Israel–Jordan peace treaty
* 1995 Beilin–Abu Mazen agreement
* 1998 Wye River Memorandum
* 1999 Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum
* 2000 Camp David Summit / Clinton Parameters
* 2000 Isratin
* 2001 Taba Summit
* 2002 Beirut Summit and peace initiative / Road map
* 2003 Geneva Initiative
* 2004 UNSC Resolution 1559 / UNSC Resolution 1566
* 2005 UNSC Resolution 1583 / Sharm El Sheikh Summit / Israeli disengagement from Gaza / Agreement on Movement and Access
* 2006 UNSC Resolution 1850 / Quartet Principles
* 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701
* 2007 Annapolis Conference
* 2010 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks
* 2013 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks
* 2016 John Kerry Parameters

2019–present|

* 2019 Trump peace plan
* 2020 Abraham Accords
* Israel–UAE normalization agreement
* Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement
* Israel–Sudan normalization agreement
* Israel–Morocco normalization agreement
* 2022 Israeli–Lebanese maritime border agreement

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