Middle East Monitor / November 4, 2020
Palestinian factions have described Arab normalisation of relations with the occupation state as an extension of the “ill-fated promise” of the Balfour Declaration. Zionist projects aiming to liquidate the Palestinian cause and legitimise Israel’s occupation of Palestine have been continuous since British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent his infamous letter to Lord Rothschild on 2 November 1917.
“The Balfour Declaration established the bases for the creation of the state of Israel at the expense of historic Palestine,” PLO official Wasel Abu Yousef told Arabi21.com. “It uprooted our people through the massacres carried out by the Zionist gangs.” The Palestinians, he added, were displaced from their land and forced to become refugees around the world. “Balfour paved the way for that to happen.”
The US deal of the century, moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem and recognising the city as the capital of Israel, as well as the Arab normalisation deals with the occupation state are all extensions of the Balfour Declaration, said Abu Yousef. “They all help to escalate the occupation which serves the Zio-American alliance.”
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, meanwhile, issued a statement to say that, “The anniversary of the ill-fated Balfour Declaration bears witness to the deviation of humanitarian values and international policy which has not been governed by legal principles and morality.”
A copy of the statement has been seen by MEMO. In it, Hamas stressed that Balfour “will remain the main witness to the largest land grab in history facilitated by the British mandate, the world’s largest colonial power at the time, and implemented by rogue terrorist groups.”
The Balfour Declaration, added Hamas, undermined Palestinian rights and led to the slaughter of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more who were supposed to be under British mandate protection at the time. “This took place amid silence from the international community.”
In conclusion, Hamas said, “Through continuous resistance against the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian people have stressed that the occupation plans and such declarations are null and void and global conspiracies are also doomed to fail.”
