David Lloyd George’S War Cabinet in 1917 declared its intention to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine – the notorious Balfour Declaration. At the time, “Jewish people” comprised less than 8 per cent of Palestine’s population. A proviso that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” was added at the insistence of Edwin Montagu, the one Jewish member of the Cabinet. Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to a Muslim family, and grew up in the neighbourhood of Katamon, among Pal­estinian Christians and other Muslims. Her family was forced to flee in 1948, eventually settling in Golders Green, London’s Jewish quarte