Årsdagen av Balfourdeklarationen

I ett brev från brittiske utrikesministern Arthur Balfour den 2 november 1917 tillkännagavs det att Storbritannien stödde tanken på att grunda en judisk stat i Palestina.
På årsdagen av händelsen publicerade de palestinska myndigheterna och Fatah följande uttalanden:

PA and Fatah: Israel had "no right" to be created (PMW)

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Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917, the PA and Fatah repeated their claim that Israel has "no right" to be created and attacked the declaration, calling it "ominous".

 

The Balfour Declaration was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and is seen as the basis for later international commitments to establish the State of Israel.

 

Abbas' Fatah movement posted the picture above of Balfour engulfed in flames, accompanied by the text:

 

"We will not forget the ominous promise, the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) given by those with no ownership to those with no right" 

[Official Facebook page of the Fatah Movement, Nov. 1, 2015]

 

The official spokesman of the PA National Security Forces, Adnan Al-Damiri, posted similar statements: 

 

Text on photo:

"We will not forget the ominous promise,

the Balfour Promise 

made by those who have no ownership 

to those who have no right.

Nov. 2, 1917"

[Facebook page of PA National Security Forces, 

Adnan Al-Damiri, Nov. 2, 2015]

 

Palestinian Media Watch has reported on PA and Fatah attacks against the Balfour Declaration and shown that the PA presents it as Europe's solution to "get rid of the Jews." 

 

 

Secretary-General of the PA's Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places Dr. Hanna Issa, blamed Britain and the Balfour Declaration for the current "disasters of war and instability" in the Middle East:

 

"Secretary-General of the [PA's] Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places Dr. Hanna Issa clarified: 'Britain played an illegal role, which began 3 years before it announced the Balfour Declaration, when it promised the Zionists that it would give the Jews a national homeland in Palestine. Since that date, terror operations in the Middle East region are becoming more and more severe as a result of this promise, which dragged the region into the disasters of war and instability."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 2, 2015]

 

The following is a longer excerpt of the article in the official PA daily saying that the Balfour Declaration "dragged the region into the disasters of war and instability":

 

Headline: "98 years since the ominous Balfour Declaration"

"Today [Nov. 2, 2015], Monday, is the 98th anniversary of the promise in which British Foreign Minister Balfour gave the Jews the right to establish their national home in Palestine. The ominous promise - in which one who does not have ownership gave the land of Palestine to one who does not have the right - was given by the British government of that time, and it worsened the tragedy of the Palestinian people from day to day...

It should be noted that the Zionist movement used the Balfour Declaration as a pretext for establishing the Zionist entity, through the placement and expansion of settlements which turned into large cities after 1948, as a result of the takeover of large territories of Palestine's lands, and expropriation of them from their legal owners. This was done using all inhuman means, such as massacre, uprooting, and expulsion, against the Palestinian people, which increased its suffering and placed it in ongoing conflict with the occupation from that day on... Secretary-General of the [PA's] Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places Dr. Hanna Issa clarified: 'Britain played an illegal role, which began 3 years before it announced the Balfour Declaration, when it promised the Zionists that it would give the Jews a national homeland in Palestine. Since that date, terror operations in the Middle East region are becoming more and more severe as a result of this promise, which dragged the region into the disasters of war and instability." 

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 2, 2015]

The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and is seen as the basis for later international commitments to establish the State of Israel.