Paul Luckraft reviews two DVDs ahead of the centenary of the Balfour Declaration this coming week.
The Forsaken Promise: Centenary Edition (Hatikvah Films, 2017)
To coincide with the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Hatikvah Film Trust have issued a shorter version of The Forsaken Promise (originally 4 hours along across two discs, first published 2007). This is an excellent resource for those who have no or little knowledge of the aftermath of the Balfour Declaration, when Britain repeatedly reneged on its commitment to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine and failed to administer the region as the Mandate required.
The new disc can more readily be used in group discussions or even given away to those who want to discover how events played out in the vital period from 1917 to 1948, when the current state of Israel came into existence.
The DVD has eleven sections which means it can be used selectively if time does not permit a full showing, or paused at suitable moments to allow group discussion. The opening seven minutes set the scene well and would be a good way of opening up such a discussion. After that we start to see how things went wrong as Britain failed to live up to her promises. The presentation covers events from the San Remo meeting of 1920 to the British withdrawal in 1948, including the Hebron Massacre (1929), the White Paper of 1939 and the appalling incident of the Exodus ship (1947). Some of the scenes are quite disturbing and would need to be handled sensitively in a group context.
The DVD ends with an interview with Derek Prince in Israel, whose forthright words leave us in no doubt about the seriousness of Britain’s actions and attitudes during this vital period in our history and that of the Jews.
The Forsaken Promise: Centenary Edition (44 minutes) is available from AO Vision for £5. The original edition is still available from the publishers for £15.
The Destiny of Britain (Hatikvah Films, 2007)
Also available from Hatikvah is The Destiny of Britain, a prequel to The Forsaken Promise. This has not been reduced in length and remains in a two-disc format, with the main presentation (on Disc 1) being in two parts totalling 107 minutes. Disc 2 features several extended interviews with participants in the main presentation - a chance to hear at greater length what these experts had to say before it was edited down for Disc 1.
Presented by Kelvin Crombie, this is story of how Britain’s Christian heritage and her geo-political objectives in the Middle East combined in the period leading up the Balfour Declaration.
Britain played a key role in the restoration of the Jewish people to their biblical homeland and this DVD acts as a positive counterfoil to the more shameful episodes that followed the Declaration. Here we learn about how God placed many strong Christians in positions of influence in order to bring his purposes to fulfilment.
Knowing our history is central to understanding our present and likely future. This DVD provides key information to that end.
The Destiny of Britain: Decisions that Shaped an Empire (107 minutes) is available from Hatikvah Films for £10.
