The Ill-Famed Balfour Declaration!

Ninety five years back in history, the British gave what they didn’t possess of the region land, sacred by all accounts, to the Jews. Arthur James Balfour, the then British Foreign Secretary, issued his ill-famed declaration on November 2nd 1917. In a letter to Lord Rothschild, Chairperson of the British Zionist Movement, Balfour paved the way not only for today’s Israel, but also for the British Mandate in 1922 over Palestine. In 1939, the British followed the Declaration with the so-called White Paper, and ultimately with the big-fish-souvenir; causing thus the agony and suffering for millions of the indigenous Arab inhabitants of Palestine.

 The continued agony of the Palestinians, especially the refugees among them, and not to mention the heinous crimes perpetrated against them, is not only the responsibility of Israeli consequent governments, as much as it is the responsibility of the British ones, which annihilated the indigenous for the sake of those imported! The world at large should be ashamed, especially those who support feed, water and defend Israel and who around the clock claim to defend human rights, democracy, freedom and international laws!

 His Majesty’s Government  decision in 1917, and the ” much pleasure”, “favour”, and “sympathy” cited in the declaration, not to mention the then and persistent ”endeavours” have created the longest tragedy in modern history. Actually, the pledges mentioned in the declaration itself that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” are but part and parcel of today’s political world of hypocrisy, cheating, hegemony  and lies! The Aqsa Mosque, the Rock of the Dome, the Nativity Church, the Birth Place of Jesus are still under the continued threats, sabotage and destruction acts of Balfour’s illegal Declaration.

Dr. M.A. Al-Ibrahim