25 oct 2017
The Palestinian community in the Netherlands called for the participation in a protest sit-in before the British Embassy in The Hague on the occasion of 100th anniversary of Balfour Declaration which stipulated the establishment of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine.
The community elaborated that a march will kick off at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 02 during the event. A letter will also be addressed to the embassy on the impacts of the declaration on the Palestinian people over these 100 years.
They also stressed that the Palestinian people would remain adamant on their right to their land despite the elapse of 100 years on that notorious Declaration.
The community elaborated that a march will kick off at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 02 during the event. A letter will also be addressed to the embassy on the impacts of the declaration on the Palestinian people over these 100 years.
They also stressed that the Palestinian people would remain adamant on their right to their land despite the elapse of 100 years on that notorious Declaration.
Within a month two events will be celebrated that have a left a deep imprint on the ‘western’ consciousness. The most significant is the Balfour Declaration, a piece of paper whose destructive consequences the people of the Middle East have had to live with every day since it was signed in November, 1917.
It was signed by a man, Arthur James Balfour, who in 1905, as Prime Minister, was regarded by Jews as anti-semitic for his sponsorship in the House of Commons of the Aliens Bill, specifically designed to keep Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia out of England.
Balfour regarded the rights and aspirations of the ‘Arabs’ as inconsequential compared to those of the Jews. More than 90 per cent of the population of Palestine in 1917, the Palestinian Arabs, Muslim and Christian, were described in his declaration as ‘existing non-Jewish communities.’
The phrase is menacing: what exists today might not necessarily exist tomorrow, which was exactly what the Zionists and senior figures in the British government, including Winston Churchill, Minister of Munitions during the war and Colonial Secretary afterwards, had in mind. Palestine would be filled with Zionist settlers until the demographic balance had reached the point where the indigenous population could be overwhelmed.
The Palestine Balfour wanted to turn into a Jewish ‘national home’ had a Palestinian population of about 600,000 and a Jewish population, composed mostly of recently arrived European settlers, of eight to ten per cent of that number: private land ownership, in the towns and the country, was almost wholly in Palestinian Muslim or Christian hands, with state and village lands part of their collective inheritance.
By 1945, through legal or semi-legal purchase, the Zionist agencies had still only managed to acquire less than six per cent of Palestine. The rest of what they wanted they would have to steal.
On October 31, two days before Balfour issued his pernicious declaration, Australian cavalrymen had broken through Ottoman defences at Beersheba (Bir Saba’). The 4th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th Australian Light Horse as well as the Imperial Camel Corps were all involved. The centenary will be celebrated this year by visiting contingents of Australians and New Zealanders.
Israeli travel companies are cashing in, offering ‘In the Footsteps of the Anzacs in the Holy Land’ tours taking in territories occupied in the 1967 war, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank, down to the Jordan River valley, as well as Beersheba.
The Times of Israel has even mocked up a ‘photograph’ of 1917 cavalrymen bearing the Australian and Israeli flags. The official Australian delegation will be led by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull: those taking part in the ‘celebrations’ will include the world champion cyclist Cadell Evans and the actor Bryan Brown. Evans will lead Australian mountain bikers on a ride along the ‘Anzac Trail’, running from Beersheba to the Gaza strip: perhaps some of the riders might wonder what is on the other side of the fence and think twice about their presence in Israel.
Beersheba’s dark history in the 20th century includes the massacre of between 40 and 120 civilians by ANZAC soldiers at Sarafand, close to Beersheba, on December 10, 1918. Hundreds of New Zealand troops entered the village and have been held primarily responsible for the massacre but Australian troops were there and, according to some evidence, also took part.
The number of the dead is inexact. They were only ‘Arabs’, after all, an attitude confirmed by the fact that while General Allenby was disgusted by the killings, no-one was charged for this war crime.
After victory over the Ottomans, Beersheba passed into British hands. Sarafand became the site of a military camp and thus part of a string of bases and prisons anchoring the British occupation of Palestine. On May 20, 1948, six days after the British departure and David Ben-Gurion’s announcement of the establishment of the state of Israel, Sarafand (Sarafand al Amr to distinguish it from another Sarafand) was attacked by Zionist forces. Almost all its houses were destroyed and its entire population of more than 2000 people driven out.
The British military base at Sarafand was turned into an Israeli military base combined with an interrogation and torture centre known to Palestinian prisoners in the coming decades as the ‘palace of hell’ or the ‘palace of the end’, coincidentally (or otherwise) the same name, Qasr al Nihayya, given to the Iraqi royal palace used by Saddam Hussein as an interrogation, torture and killing centre.
Beersheba’s turn for ethnic cleansing came on October 21, 1948, during Operation Yoav, one of the many campaigns launched to take complete control of the Naqab all the way down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Beersheba was inside the territory allocated to the Palestinian state in the partition plan of 1947.
It did not have a Jewish population at all and neither were there any Jewish settlements nearby. The population of Beersheba about 6000 was entirely Palestinian, including sedentary or semi-sedentary beduin: the population of the Beersheba district was about 110,000, almost all driven out of their villages and the town itself. Many of the buildings in Beersheba were destroyed but the central mosque was retained and eventually turned into a museum, set aside in recent years for events such as a wine and beer festival, against Palestinian protests.
Many of the residents of Beersheba and its environs ended up in Gaza as part of the outflow of about 200,000 people driven out of southern Palestine. With Beersheba in their hands, the Zionists could then begin the conquest of the southern Naqab. They had been allocated this region in 1947 irrespective of the fact that it had no Jewish population at all. Given the enormous mass of territory the Zionists had taken beyond the limits of the partition plan some resistance developed in the US State Department to the idea that Israel should have all the Naqab as well. But Israel insisted that it ‘must have’ what it had been promised and, in particular, ‘must have’ Eilat.
No-one in the State Department raised the obvious point that there was no Eilat on the map, only a Jordanian police post, Umm Rashrash, standing on the site where the Zionists planned to build Eilat. On March 10, 1949, Israel completed its conquest of the Naqab by seizing Umm Rashrash. It had insisted on taking what it had been given in the partition plan, and had insisted on holding what it had taken outside the partition plan, and it got away with it. Umm Rashrash was developed into the port city of Eilat, and the ethnically cleansed town of Beersheba was turned into the ‘capital’ of the ‘Negev:’ the nuclear weapons development and production plant at Dimona lies about 35 kilometres to the south. The ethnic cleansing of the beduin from the Naqab has continued in waves down to the present day.
Australia has its own savage colonial past. Several years ago, the Rudd government initiated the ‘sorry’ movement which was at least an acknowledgement of the crimes committed against the indigenous people. No lecture is now given or conference given without speakers acknowledging the rights of the traditional owners of the land. In the cities, with aboriginal land long since built over, the acknowledgement of their rights is never followed up by any practical attempt to give some of it back. In the outback, furthermore, away from the city lights, where even neglect can be neglected, the problems experienced by aboriginal people continue unredressed, as John Pilger’s recent documentary Utopia makes painfully clear.
Australian politicians, by and large, defend the ‘rights’ of the indigenous people even if there is little clarity on exactly what those rights should include. In any case, acknowledging indigenous rights in Australia and defending them elsewhere are clearly two different matters. Australian politicians have a track record of slavish deference to Israel, a state which continues its racist war of usurpation against the Palestinian people despite international condemnation. The list includes all recent Prime Ministers, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Malcom Turnbull.
Onslaughts on Gaza resulting in the killing of thousands of people are met with the response that Israel is entitled to defend itself while at the UN Australia has repeatedly voted against the upgrading of Palestine credentials. Julia Gillard, presenting herself as the defender of the rights of women and children around the world, has never once defended the rights of women and children in Gaza and the West Bank: on the contrary, her defence of Israel added up to justification for its crimes.
Greeting Benyamin Netanyahu in Sydney in February this year, Turnbull remarked that ‘we have so much in common, shared values, democracy, freedom, the rule of law. Two democracies, one very small in area, one vast but each of us big-hearted, generous, committed to freedom.’
These remarks are such an insult to the intelligence of Palestinians and Australians aware of Israel’s criminal behaviour, a rapidly growing number, that Turnbull himself can surely hardly believe what he is saying to be true. Palestinians are not free. In Gaza, in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank they live in a state of bondage: even in pre-1967 Israel they are subjected to a two-tier legal and social system. No country in the world has shown more contempt for international law and
Even as Australians were planning their Beersheba visit an infuriated Israel pulled out of UNESCO, along with the United States. The immediate cause was UNESCO’s designation of the West Bank city of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque and the ‘cave of the patriarchs’ claimed to be lying beneath it, as a ‘Palestinian World Heritage site in danger.’ Hebron is an occupied city that has been turned by the Israeli state into one of the most racist places on the face of the earth.
The state’s agents are soldiers and settlers who work together against the Palestinian population, the soldiers protecting the settlers whatever they do and punishing the Palestinians whatever they don’t do. The heart of the city has been gutted by the occupiers. The central bus station, an artery for all life in the town, was closed down in the early 1980s. The central market soon followed, along with all surrounding Palestinian buildings, in the name of security for the settlers living on the heights above. The only visitors to the shuttered ghost market now are Jewish tourists protected by soldiers and believing anything they are told.
In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, an American-born settler from Kiryat Arba, adjoining Hebron, and a follower of the genocidal rabbi Meir Kahane, walked into the Ibrahimi mosque and massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers with an assault rifle before being beaten to death by the rest of the congregation. This horrific act was celebrated by the Kiryat Arba setters. At Goldstein’s funeral one rabbi said that a million Arabs were ‘not worth a Jewish fingernail’ while another, Dov Lior, now the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, described Goldstein as being ‘holier than all the martyrs of the holocaust.’
Far from punishing the settler community which nurtured Goldstein, and then celebrated the massacre with a monument built to his memory, Israel took advantage of the moment to bring the mosque under its direct control, with only nominal authority retained by the waqf (religious charitable foundation) authorities. Two thirds of the mosque was turned into a synagogue to serve the setters of Kiryat Araba and Jewish visitors and one third allowed the Palestinians. They continue to pray at the mosque despite checkpoints and intimidation by soldiers and settlers because it is Palestinian property, because it is their place of worship and because they are determined to prevent it falling wholly into the hands of the occupier.
The UNESCO vote was only the organisation’s latest attempt to protect Palestinian sites. Israel’s record of cultural destruction goes back to the beginning: in 1948 it destroyed close to 500 villages or hamlets and in 1967, having seized East Jerusalem, it immediately pulled down the medieval Magharibah (North African) quarter, built for Muslim pilgrims in the 12th century by a son of Salah al Din al Ayyubi (Saladin), to make way for a ‘plaza’ around the wall of the Haram al Sharif, the compound containing Al Aqsa (the furthest) mosque, designated by Israel as the ‘Temple Mount.’
Destruction of the Muslim Mamillah cemetery in Jerusalem (Al Quds or ‘the holy’) began soon after the 1948 war to make way for an ‘independence park.’ Created in the 7th century the cemetery has been targeted repeatedly, with an estimated 1500 tombs having now been removed, with many of the remains simply thrown away. A parking lot has been built on cemetery land and plans laid for the construction of a ‘museum of tolerance.’ The destruction/desecration of the cemetery is part of an ongoing process to water down, hide or wipe out the character of what the great scholar Albert Hourani once described as the perfect example of a medieval Islamic city.
Australians visiting Jerusalem or taking side trips to the Golan Heights during their Anzac holy land tour need to understand what they are sanctioning by their presence. In Beersheba they will be commemorating a battle which stands in Palestinian memory as the scene of a massacre. They will be trooping in and out of a city built up on ethnically cleansed Palestinian land. They will be riding the ‘Anzac trail’ up to Gaza where, behind the fence, Palestinians who once lived in or around Beersheba were driven out by those who took the town over.
The problem is not just that Palestine was ethnically cleansed once, in 1948, and twice, in 1967, but that the clearing of the land continues in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank. There is no remorse, no regret by Israel, no willingness to come to terms with the past, only triumphalism, arrogance, more criminality and endless restatements that ‘this land belongs to us and only us.’ Morally, Australian public figures visiting Israel to take part in state-sponsored events put themselves in a contradictory position. Defending, at least in word, indigenous rights in their own country, they are visiting a country where the destruction of the rights of another indigenous people does not belong to the past but, after more than 70 years, remains an ongoing process.
– Jeremy Salt taught at the University of Melbourne, at Bosporus University in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara for many years, specializing in the modern history of the Middle East. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
It was signed by a man, Arthur James Balfour, who in 1905, as Prime Minister, was regarded by Jews as anti-semitic for his sponsorship in the House of Commons of the Aliens Bill, specifically designed to keep Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia out of England.
Balfour regarded the rights and aspirations of the ‘Arabs’ as inconsequential compared to those of the Jews. More than 90 per cent of the population of Palestine in 1917, the Palestinian Arabs, Muslim and Christian, were described in his declaration as ‘existing non-Jewish communities.’
The phrase is menacing: what exists today might not necessarily exist tomorrow, which was exactly what the Zionists and senior figures in the British government, including Winston Churchill, Minister of Munitions during the war and Colonial Secretary afterwards, had in mind. Palestine would be filled with Zionist settlers until the demographic balance had reached the point where the indigenous population could be overwhelmed.
The Palestine Balfour wanted to turn into a Jewish ‘national home’ had a Palestinian population of about 600,000 and a Jewish population, composed mostly of recently arrived European settlers, of eight to ten per cent of that number: private land ownership, in the towns and the country, was almost wholly in Palestinian Muslim or Christian hands, with state and village lands part of their collective inheritance.
By 1945, through legal or semi-legal purchase, the Zionist agencies had still only managed to acquire less than six per cent of Palestine. The rest of what they wanted they would have to steal.
On October 31, two days before Balfour issued his pernicious declaration, Australian cavalrymen had broken through Ottoman defences at Beersheba (Bir Saba’). The 4th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th Australian Light Horse as well as the Imperial Camel Corps were all involved. The centenary will be celebrated this year by visiting contingents of Australians and New Zealanders.
Israeli travel companies are cashing in, offering ‘In the Footsteps of the Anzacs in the Holy Land’ tours taking in territories occupied in the 1967 war, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank, down to the Jordan River valley, as well as Beersheba.
The Times of Israel has even mocked up a ‘photograph’ of 1917 cavalrymen bearing the Australian and Israeli flags. The official Australian delegation will be led by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull: those taking part in the ‘celebrations’ will include the world champion cyclist Cadell Evans and the actor Bryan Brown. Evans will lead Australian mountain bikers on a ride along the ‘Anzac Trail’, running from Beersheba to the Gaza strip: perhaps some of the riders might wonder what is on the other side of the fence and think twice about their presence in Israel.
Beersheba’s dark history in the 20th century includes the massacre of between 40 and 120 civilians by ANZAC soldiers at Sarafand, close to Beersheba, on December 10, 1918. Hundreds of New Zealand troops entered the village and have been held primarily responsible for the massacre but Australian troops were there and, according to some evidence, also took part.
The number of the dead is inexact. They were only ‘Arabs’, after all, an attitude confirmed by the fact that while General Allenby was disgusted by the killings, no-one was charged for this war crime.
After victory over the Ottomans, Beersheba passed into British hands. Sarafand became the site of a military camp and thus part of a string of bases and prisons anchoring the British occupation of Palestine. On May 20, 1948, six days after the British departure and David Ben-Gurion’s announcement of the establishment of the state of Israel, Sarafand (Sarafand al Amr to distinguish it from another Sarafand) was attacked by Zionist forces. Almost all its houses were destroyed and its entire population of more than 2000 people driven out.
The British military base at Sarafand was turned into an Israeli military base combined with an interrogation and torture centre known to Palestinian prisoners in the coming decades as the ‘palace of hell’ or the ‘palace of the end’, coincidentally (or otherwise) the same name, Qasr al Nihayya, given to the Iraqi royal palace used by Saddam Hussein as an interrogation, torture and killing centre.
Beersheba’s turn for ethnic cleansing came on October 21, 1948, during Operation Yoav, one of the many campaigns launched to take complete control of the Naqab all the way down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Beersheba was inside the territory allocated to the Palestinian state in the partition plan of 1947.
It did not have a Jewish population at all and neither were there any Jewish settlements nearby. The population of Beersheba about 6000 was entirely Palestinian, including sedentary or semi-sedentary beduin: the population of the Beersheba district was about 110,000, almost all driven out of their villages and the town itself. Many of the buildings in Beersheba were destroyed but the central mosque was retained and eventually turned into a museum, set aside in recent years for events such as a wine and beer festival, against Palestinian protests.
Many of the residents of Beersheba and its environs ended up in Gaza as part of the outflow of about 200,000 people driven out of southern Palestine. With Beersheba in their hands, the Zionists could then begin the conquest of the southern Naqab. They had been allocated this region in 1947 irrespective of the fact that it had no Jewish population at all. Given the enormous mass of territory the Zionists had taken beyond the limits of the partition plan some resistance developed in the US State Department to the idea that Israel should have all the Naqab as well. But Israel insisted that it ‘must have’ what it had been promised and, in particular, ‘must have’ Eilat.
No-one in the State Department raised the obvious point that there was no Eilat on the map, only a Jordanian police post, Umm Rashrash, standing on the site where the Zionists planned to build Eilat. On March 10, 1949, Israel completed its conquest of the Naqab by seizing Umm Rashrash. It had insisted on taking what it had been given in the partition plan, and had insisted on holding what it had taken outside the partition plan, and it got away with it. Umm Rashrash was developed into the port city of Eilat, and the ethnically cleansed town of Beersheba was turned into the ‘capital’ of the ‘Negev:’ the nuclear weapons development and production plant at Dimona lies about 35 kilometres to the south. The ethnic cleansing of the beduin from the Naqab has continued in waves down to the present day.
Australia has its own savage colonial past. Several years ago, the Rudd government initiated the ‘sorry’ movement which was at least an acknowledgement of the crimes committed against the indigenous people. No lecture is now given or conference given without speakers acknowledging the rights of the traditional owners of the land. In the cities, with aboriginal land long since built over, the acknowledgement of their rights is never followed up by any practical attempt to give some of it back. In the outback, furthermore, away from the city lights, where even neglect can be neglected, the problems experienced by aboriginal people continue unredressed, as John Pilger’s recent documentary Utopia makes painfully clear.
Australian politicians, by and large, defend the ‘rights’ of the indigenous people even if there is little clarity on exactly what those rights should include. In any case, acknowledging indigenous rights in Australia and defending them elsewhere are clearly two different matters. Australian politicians have a track record of slavish deference to Israel, a state which continues its racist war of usurpation against the Palestinian people despite international condemnation. The list includes all recent Prime Ministers, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Malcom Turnbull.
Onslaughts on Gaza resulting in the killing of thousands of people are met with the response that Israel is entitled to defend itself while at the UN Australia has repeatedly voted against the upgrading of Palestine credentials. Julia Gillard, presenting herself as the defender of the rights of women and children around the world, has never once defended the rights of women and children in Gaza and the West Bank: on the contrary, her defence of Israel added up to justification for its crimes.
Greeting Benyamin Netanyahu in Sydney in February this year, Turnbull remarked that ‘we have so much in common, shared values, democracy, freedom, the rule of law. Two democracies, one very small in area, one vast but each of us big-hearted, generous, committed to freedom.’
These remarks are such an insult to the intelligence of Palestinians and Australians aware of Israel’s criminal behaviour, a rapidly growing number, that Turnbull himself can surely hardly believe what he is saying to be true. Palestinians are not free. In Gaza, in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank they live in a state of bondage: even in pre-1967 Israel they are subjected to a two-tier legal and social system. No country in the world has shown more contempt for international law and
Even as Australians were planning their Beersheba visit an infuriated Israel pulled out of UNESCO, along with the United States. The immediate cause was UNESCO’s designation of the West Bank city of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque and the ‘cave of the patriarchs’ claimed to be lying beneath it, as a ‘Palestinian World Heritage site in danger.’ Hebron is an occupied city that has been turned by the Israeli state into one of the most racist places on the face of the earth.
The state’s agents are soldiers and settlers who work together against the Palestinian population, the soldiers protecting the settlers whatever they do and punishing the Palestinians whatever they don’t do. The heart of the city has been gutted by the occupiers. The central bus station, an artery for all life in the town, was closed down in the early 1980s. The central market soon followed, along with all surrounding Palestinian buildings, in the name of security for the settlers living on the heights above. The only visitors to the shuttered ghost market now are Jewish tourists protected by soldiers and believing anything they are told.
In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, an American-born settler from Kiryat Arba, adjoining Hebron, and a follower of the genocidal rabbi Meir Kahane, walked into the Ibrahimi mosque and massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers with an assault rifle before being beaten to death by the rest of the congregation. This horrific act was celebrated by the Kiryat Arba setters. At Goldstein’s funeral one rabbi said that a million Arabs were ‘not worth a Jewish fingernail’ while another, Dov Lior, now the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, described Goldstein as being ‘holier than all the martyrs of the holocaust.’
Far from punishing the settler community which nurtured Goldstein, and then celebrated the massacre with a monument built to his memory, Israel took advantage of the moment to bring the mosque under its direct control, with only nominal authority retained by the waqf (religious charitable foundation) authorities. Two thirds of the mosque was turned into a synagogue to serve the setters of Kiryat Araba and Jewish visitors and one third allowed the Palestinians. They continue to pray at the mosque despite checkpoints and intimidation by soldiers and settlers because it is Palestinian property, because it is their place of worship and because they are determined to prevent it falling wholly into the hands of the occupier.
The UNESCO vote was only the organisation’s latest attempt to protect Palestinian sites. Israel’s record of cultural destruction goes back to the beginning: in 1948 it destroyed close to 500 villages or hamlets and in 1967, having seized East Jerusalem, it immediately pulled down the medieval Magharibah (North African) quarter, built for Muslim pilgrims in the 12th century by a son of Salah al Din al Ayyubi (Saladin), to make way for a ‘plaza’ around the wall of the Haram al Sharif, the compound containing Al Aqsa (the furthest) mosque, designated by Israel as the ‘Temple Mount.’
Destruction of the Muslim Mamillah cemetery in Jerusalem (Al Quds or ‘the holy’) began soon after the 1948 war to make way for an ‘independence park.’ Created in the 7th century the cemetery has been targeted repeatedly, with an estimated 1500 tombs having now been removed, with many of the remains simply thrown away. A parking lot has been built on cemetery land and plans laid for the construction of a ‘museum of tolerance.’ The destruction/desecration of the cemetery is part of an ongoing process to water down, hide or wipe out the character of what the great scholar Albert Hourani once described as the perfect example of a medieval Islamic city.
Australians visiting Jerusalem or taking side trips to the Golan Heights during their Anzac holy land tour need to understand what they are sanctioning by their presence. In Beersheba they will be commemorating a battle which stands in Palestinian memory as the scene of a massacre. They will be trooping in and out of a city built up on ethnically cleansed Palestinian land. They will be riding the ‘Anzac trail’ up to Gaza where, behind the fence, Palestinians who once lived in or around Beersheba were driven out by those who took the town over.
The problem is not just that Palestine was ethnically cleansed once, in 1948, and twice, in 1967, but that the clearing of the land continues in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank. There is no remorse, no regret by Israel, no willingness to come to terms with the past, only triumphalism, arrogance, more criminality and endless restatements that ‘this land belongs to us and only us.’ Morally, Australian public figures visiting Israel to take part in state-sponsored events put themselves in a contradictory position. Defending, at least in word, indigenous rights in their own country, they are visiting a country where the destruction of the rights of another indigenous people does not belong to the past but, after more than 70 years, remains an ongoing process.
– Jeremy Salt taught at the University of Melbourne, at Bosporus University in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara for many years, specializing in the modern history of the Middle East. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
23 oct 2017
Palestinian national and Islamic forces on Monday called for organizing large-scale events in the Palestinian territories and abroad against the Balfour Declaration which anniversary falls on 2nd November.
According to the Palestinian forces, the central event will be held in Ramallah and al-Bireh province, and other events will be organized in the Gaza Strip, the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and Jerusalem.
The Palestinian forces asked Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration and recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including their rights of return, self-determination and statehood.
They condemned the celebration scheduled to be held in London to mark the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration with the participation of Israel, and confirmed their rejection of any solutions harming the constant rights of the Palestinian people.
In another context, the Palestinian forces called for prosecuting all those involved in the secret sales of the Orthodox Church lands in Jerusalem and working to cancel these sales.
They expressed their rejection of any form of normalization with Israel and stressed the importance of launching a comprehensive boycott campaign against Israel and supporting the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).
They also demanded that efforts should be intensified to liberate the Palestinian prisoners and hold Israel accountable at the international courts for the violations committed against them.
According to the Palestinian forces, the central event will be held in Ramallah and al-Bireh province, and other events will be organized in the Gaza Strip, the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and Jerusalem.
The Palestinian forces asked Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration and recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including their rights of return, self-determination and statehood.
They condemned the celebration scheduled to be held in London to mark the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration with the participation of Israel, and confirmed their rejection of any solutions harming the constant rights of the Palestinian people.
In another context, the Palestinian forces called for prosecuting all those involved in the secret sales of the Orthodox Church lands in Jerusalem and working to cancel these sales.
They expressed their rejection of any form of normalization with Israel and stressed the importance of launching a comprehensive boycott campaign against Israel and supporting the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).
They also demanded that efforts should be intensified to liberate the Palestinian prisoners and hold Israel accountable at the international courts for the violations committed against them.
20 oct 2017
Just over two weeks from the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on 2 November, all parties are readying their narratives for the impending public opinion battle ahead.
Jews largely see the Balfour Declaration as a defining moment leading to the creation of the state of Israel, while for Palestinians it is when their country was just promised away over their heads, violating the second part of the declaration that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".
Palestinians from the leaderships to the popular level rail against the British government's attitude on the Balfour Declaration. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has for two years demanded an historic apology from Britain. His foreign minister threatened to sue Britain in a statement at the 2016 Arab League summit.
It is one issue that unites all Palestinians. Britain is fair game to blame.
Shades of censorship
Determined to engage the British public on Balfour, the Palestinian Mission in London attempted to place adverts, which it had paid for, about the Balfour Declaration and subsequent Palestinian losses on the London Underground network and buses as part of what it called the "Make it Right" campaign.
Transport for London (TFL) banned the adverts on the grounds that they were "politically controversial" and “did not comply fully with our guidelines".
The Palestinian Ambassador in London, Manuel Hassassian, issued a furious riposte to the Guardian newspaper accusing TFL of censorship, proclaiming that "there may be free speech in Britain on every issue under the sun but not on Palestine".
At face value, both have a point.
TFL's rules state that political campaigns and adverts cannot be used on the underground nor adverts that would arouse controversy. The Balfour Declaration is every bit as politically controversial today, as it was when the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, issued the pledge a century ago.
Remember that this is not the US where political advertising is a mega industry, protected as free speech under the first amendment. In Britain - for example - political advertising is banned on television, a decision that was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in 2013.
The TFL rulebook certainly does not appear to allow for such adverts.
Consistency issues
If it was the other way round, and the Israeli embassy paid for an advert celebrating the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians would be rightly demanding it be blocked under exactly the same rules. But perhaps where TFL should be questioned is on the issue of consistency? Whether an advert is political or controversial is ultimately a matter of judgement. This does not explain why TFL allowed a similar advert to run for two weeks at Westminster tube station for last November's 99th anniversary.
That too was part of the "Make it Right" campaign. Has something happened to change TFL's position or did it make a mistake?
The Russian channel Russia Today (RT) has recently taken out adverts on the tube ridiculing widespread accusations that it is a propaganda channel. TFL said that it adhered to its guidelines, yet RT is certainly controversial and few believe it is anything but a political tool of the Kremlin.
Hassassian also makes a powerful point on the issue of censorship and the lack of debate. University debates on this issue are frequently cancelled. Those who dare to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) become the target of attacks by government ministers and the anti-Palestinian groups that refuse to recognise Palestinian rights.
Fears of false accusations of anti-Semitism hold many back from saying what they think about Israeli government actions and policies. Elected politicians from all parties have told me this on many occasions.
Seize the moment
That the Palestinian viewpoint does not get a hearing in the plush corridors of Whitehall is one reason why advertising space on the underground has seen fearsome debates before. Only in February 2016, activists plastered trains and walls with posters accusing Israel of apartheid and the media of being biased in an unauthorised flyposting campaign.
Moreover, who can blame Palestinian officials for fulminating against a British government whose prime minister is still determined to celebrate Balfour with "pride". Theresa May might have an acceptable position if she ever balanced this by expressing regret, that while Balfour did prove positive for the Jewish people, it was an horrific disaster for the Palestinian people and its effects are ongoing today.
The solution is to render this advert obsolete with one simple decision. Britain should recognise Palestine now
The real shame is that the debate over Palestine has been driven underground. The mainstream media typically avoids the issue. British cabinet ministers only seem to appear at Israeli-friendly or anti-Palestinian events. Boris Johnson took months after taking over as Foreign Secretary before he dared say anything on the issue.
The Balfour anniversary could be just such an opportunity if only there was a politician with sufficient guts and clout minded to seize the moment.
The solution is to render this advert obsolete with one simple decision. Britain should recognise Palestine now. Perhaps then we could have an advert on the underground promoting tourism to the state of Palestine. One day this might not even be controversial.
-Chris Doyle is the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding. As the lead spokesperson for CAABU and as an expert on the region, he is a frequent commentator on TV and radio. His article was published in the Middle East Eye.
Jews largely see the Balfour Declaration as a defining moment leading to the creation of the state of Israel, while for Palestinians it is when their country was just promised away over their heads, violating the second part of the declaration that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".
Palestinians from the leaderships to the popular level rail against the British government's attitude on the Balfour Declaration. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has for two years demanded an historic apology from Britain. His foreign minister threatened to sue Britain in a statement at the 2016 Arab League summit.
It is one issue that unites all Palestinians. Britain is fair game to blame.
Shades of censorship
Determined to engage the British public on Balfour, the Palestinian Mission in London attempted to place adverts, which it had paid for, about the Balfour Declaration and subsequent Palestinian losses on the London Underground network and buses as part of what it called the "Make it Right" campaign.
Transport for London (TFL) banned the adverts on the grounds that they were "politically controversial" and “did not comply fully with our guidelines".
The Palestinian Ambassador in London, Manuel Hassassian, issued a furious riposte to the Guardian newspaper accusing TFL of censorship, proclaiming that "there may be free speech in Britain on every issue under the sun but not on Palestine".
At face value, both have a point.
TFL's rules state that political campaigns and adverts cannot be used on the underground nor adverts that would arouse controversy. The Balfour Declaration is every bit as politically controversial today, as it was when the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, issued the pledge a century ago.
Remember that this is not the US where political advertising is a mega industry, protected as free speech under the first amendment. In Britain - for example - political advertising is banned on television, a decision that was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in 2013.
The TFL rulebook certainly does not appear to allow for such adverts.
Consistency issues
If it was the other way round, and the Israeli embassy paid for an advert celebrating the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians would be rightly demanding it be blocked under exactly the same rules. But perhaps where TFL should be questioned is on the issue of consistency? Whether an advert is political or controversial is ultimately a matter of judgement. This does not explain why TFL allowed a similar advert to run for two weeks at Westminster tube station for last November's 99th anniversary.
That too was part of the "Make it Right" campaign. Has something happened to change TFL's position or did it make a mistake?
The Russian channel Russia Today (RT) has recently taken out adverts on the tube ridiculing widespread accusations that it is a propaganda channel. TFL said that it adhered to its guidelines, yet RT is certainly controversial and few believe it is anything but a political tool of the Kremlin.
Hassassian also makes a powerful point on the issue of censorship and the lack of debate. University debates on this issue are frequently cancelled. Those who dare to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) become the target of attacks by government ministers and the anti-Palestinian groups that refuse to recognise Palestinian rights.
Fears of false accusations of anti-Semitism hold many back from saying what they think about Israeli government actions and policies. Elected politicians from all parties have told me this on many occasions.
Seize the moment
That the Palestinian viewpoint does not get a hearing in the plush corridors of Whitehall is one reason why advertising space on the underground has seen fearsome debates before. Only in February 2016, activists plastered trains and walls with posters accusing Israel of apartheid and the media of being biased in an unauthorised flyposting campaign.
Moreover, who can blame Palestinian officials for fulminating against a British government whose prime minister is still determined to celebrate Balfour with "pride". Theresa May might have an acceptable position if she ever balanced this by expressing regret, that while Balfour did prove positive for the Jewish people, it was an horrific disaster for the Palestinian people and its effects are ongoing today.
The solution is to render this advert obsolete with one simple decision. Britain should recognise Palestine now
The real shame is that the debate over Palestine has been driven underground. The mainstream media typically avoids the issue. British cabinet ministers only seem to appear at Israeli-friendly or anti-Palestinian events. Boris Johnson took months after taking over as Foreign Secretary before he dared say anything on the issue.
The Balfour anniversary could be just such an opportunity if only there was a politician with sufficient guts and clout minded to seize the moment.
The solution is to render this advert obsolete with one simple decision. Britain should recognise Palestine now. Perhaps then we could have an advert on the underground promoting tourism to the state of Palestine. One day this might not even be controversial.
-Chris Doyle is the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding. As the lead spokesperson for CAABU and as an expert on the region, he is a frequent commentator on TV and radio. His article was published in the Middle East Eye.
12 oct 2017
A conference over the upshots of the notorious Balfour Declaration is to be held on November 17 in Beirut by the Palestinians Abroad Conference, in partnership with the Arab-International Center for Communication and Solidarity.
“Balfour . . . . The Centenary of an Imperialist Project” Conference is expected to kick start in Beirut on November 17 so as to discuss the tragic fallouts of the Balfour Declaration and of the British mandate in Palestine.
The conference will also shed light on the legal flaws of the Declaration and the UK’s historical responsibility for the tragedy befalling the Palestinians over decades.
The conference follows attempts by the Palestinians in Europe Conference to urge the UK to backtrack on the celebration of the Balfour centenary.
“Balfour . . . . The Centenary of an Imperialist Project” Conference is expected to kick start in Beirut on November 17 so as to discuss the tragic fallouts of the Balfour Declaration and of the British mandate in Palestine.
The conference will also shed light on the legal flaws of the Declaration and the UK’s historical responsibility for the tragedy befalling the Palestinians over decades.
The conference follows attempts by the Palestinians in Europe Conference to urge the UK to backtrack on the celebration of the Balfour centenary.
26 sept 2017
The Palestinian Return Center (PRC) on Monday held a panel discussion about the Balfour declaration on the sidelines of the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The participants in the debate called on Britain to necessarily apologize for the declaration, which they said led to the displacement of millions of Palestinians and brought endless calamities upon them
In his speech, Salman Abu Sitta, head of the general committee for the National Conference for the Palestinians Abroad, talked about Britain’s role in establishing the Israeli occupation state and committing massacres against the Palestinian people.
Abu Sitta demanded Britain to apologize for the letter made by its foreign secretary Arthur Balfour in 1917 on Palestine and compensate the Palestinian people financially for the harm and destruction which they have suffered from at the hands of the Zionists for over 100 years.
For his part, head of the Palestinian Prisoner Society Qaddura Fares criticized Britain for its refusal to apologize for the Balfour declaration, stressing that the Palestinian people at home and abroad are in agreement that Britain must shoulder its responsibilities towards them.
PRC chairman Majed al-Zeer, in turn, spoke on the importance of the role that can be played by civil society and human rights groups in pressuring the British government to apologize for its crimes in Palestine.
The participants in the debate called on Britain to necessarily apologize for the declaration, which they said led to the displacement of millions of Palestinians and brought endless calamities upon them
In his speech, Salman Abu Sitta, head of the general committee for the National Conference for the Palestinians Abroad, talked about Britain’s role in establishing the Israeli occupation state and committing massacres against the Palestinian people.
Abu Sitta demanded Britain to apologize for the letter made by its foreign secretary Arthur Balfour in 1917 on Palestine and compensate the Palestinian people financially for the harm and destruction which they have suffered from at the hands of the Zionists for over 100 years.
For his part, head of the Palestinian Prisoner Society Qaddura Fares criticized Britain for its refusal to apologize for the Balfour declaration, stressing that the Palestinian people at home and abroad are in agreement that Britain must shoulder its responsibilities towards them.
PRC chairman Majed al-Zeer, in turn, spoke on the importance of the role that can be played by civil society and human rights groups in pressuring the British government to apologize for its crimes in Palestine.
21 sept 2017
The Popular Conference of the Palestinians Abroad, in cooperation with other pro-Palestine groups, has launched a popular campaign under the title “Balfour: Centenary of a Colonial Project.”
According to the organizers, the campaign aims to raise the Palestinian voice worldwide on the centenary of the Balfour declaration and to emphasize the Palestinian people’s right to return to their homes.
The campaign will promote public awareness about the meaning of this declaration historically, politically and legally and unveil hidden details about it.
It also seeks to confront the events held by Israel to mark the Balfour declaration and to highlight the responsibility of western colonial states in general and Britain in particular for the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) that resulted from this declaration.
For this purpose, the organizers created the hashtag “#Balfour 100” on Twitter as well as the website “www.balfour100 colonial.org” and called for active participation in their campaign.
According to the organizers, the campaign aims to raise the Palestinian voice worldwide on the centenary of the Balfour declaration and to emphasize the Palestinian people’s right to return to their homes.
The campaign will promote public awareness about the meaning of this declaration historically, politically and legally and unveil hidden details about it.
It also seeks to confront the events held by Israel to mark the Balfour declaration and to highlight the responsibility of western colonial states in general and Britain in particular for the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) that resulted from this declaration.
For this purpose, the organizers created the hashtag “#Balfour 100” on Twitter as well as the website “www.balfour100 colonial.org” and called for active participation in their campaign.
22 apr 2017
Isam Yousef, head of the Popular International Committee for the Support of Gaza, said the UK's refusal to apologize for Balfour declaration constitutes a renewal of the ill-famed promise.
In a press statement on Saturday, Yousef said “We adhere to our land and right of return. We promise our current and coming generations to liberate our lands”.
“Every Palestinian refugee, who was displaced because of Balfour Declaration, will return to his homeland Palestine and Israeli occupation will be brought to an end”, he underlined.
In a press statement on Saturday, Yousef said “We adhere to our land and right of return. We promise our current and coming generations to liberate our lands”.
“Every Palestinian refugee, who was displaced because of Balfour Declaration, will return to his homeland Palestine and Israeli occupation will be brought to an end”, he underlined.
11 apr 2017
A petition urging the British government to apologize for the tragic fallouts of the Balfour Declaration received over 11,000 signatures, the Palestinian Return Center (PRC) reported.
According to the London-based PRC, the UK government is duty-bound to respond to the campaign in three days as any petition signed by more than 10,000 people will have a government response released alongside it.
PRC’s Executive Director, Tareq Hammoud, said the move is a sign of the increasing popularity garnered by the Balfour Apology Campaign.
“The fact that the petition reached a 10,000-signature threshold heralds a significant shift in public opinion vis-à-vis the Palestinian cause over the past decade,” said Hammoud.
Efforts have, meanwhile, been in full swing to reach a 100,000-signature threshold in an attempt to make the petition eligible for a House of Commons debate.
The petition makes part of PRC’s underway endeavors to urge the British government to make an apology over the Balfour pledge and to backtrack on its intent to mark the centenary of the declaration.
The Balfour Declaration was a letter dated November 2, 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community. The text of the letter gave, one hundred years ago, green light for the establishment, in Palestine, of a national home for the Jewish people.
According to the London-based PRC, the UK government is duty-bound to respond to the campaign in three days as any petition signed by more than 10,000 people will have a government response released alongside it.
PRC’s Executive Director, Tareq Hammoud, said the move is a sign of the increasing popularity garnered by the Balfour Apology Campaign.
“The fact that the petition reached a 10,000-signature threshold heralds a significant shift in public opinion vis-à-vis the Palestinian cause over the past decade,” said Hammoud.
Efforts have, meanwhile, been in full swing to reach a 100,000-signature threshold in an attempt to make the petition eligible for a House of Commons debate.
The petition makes part of PRC’s underway endeavors to urge the British government to make an apology over the Balfour pledge and to backtrack on its intent to mark the centenary of the declaration.
The Balfour Declaration was a letter dated November 2, 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community. The text of the letter gave, one hundred years ago, green light for the establishment, in Palestine, of a national home for the Jewish people.
