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November 01, 2011

Balfour Declaration changes fate of Palestine

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(CHICAGO 11/01/2011) -- More than 6 million Palestinians are refugees and thousands are dead because of a declaration composed of just 64 words.

 

The Balfour Declaration, made by the British government on behalf of the British Zionist Federation, was made 94 years ago Wednesday. It instantly changed the fate of Palestine and began the Zionists’ process of ethnically cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland, which continues until today.

“His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country," British Foreign Minister Arthur James Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild on Nov. 2, 1917.

The American Muslims for Palestine commemorates this sad date in history as a reminder of the injustice done to the Palestinian people in 1917, with the United Nation’s partition of Palestine in 1947, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and Israel’s occupation of the remainder of historic Palestine – the West Bank and Gaza – in 1967.

Everything thing that has befallen Palestine -- It’s partition, the settlements, random arrests and detentions, the Apartheid Wall, the siege on Gaza, and the millions of Palestinians living in exile and Diaspora -- was made possible because of the Balfour Declaration,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, AMP chairman. “To quote a former member of the British parliament, the conflict ‘started when Arthur Balfour, on behalf of one people promised a second people the land which belonged to a third people.’”

AMP asks people of conscience to pressure their elected officials to create a more balanced and equitable Middle East foreign policy so that all people can live in peace and security.

Palestinians’ struggle to gain liberty and to live free from Israel’s military oppression is not an aspiration; it is a right guaranteed under international law. The return of millions of refugees to their homeland is not an aspiration, it is a right guaranteed under international law. The reunification of Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, in historic Palestine and in Diaspora is not an aspiration, it is a right guaranteed under international law.

Israel’s occupation of Palestine is the longest-lasting occupation in modern history. It is time for it to end.

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