This week, Palestinians around the world are marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a controversial letter issued by Britain’s former foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, on November 2, 1917.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly

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understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country,” the letter stated.

The declaration, which turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality, is broadly viewed as one of the main catalysts behind the 1948 Nakba and decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Here, Al Jazeera explores some key images from the era of the Balfour Declaration.