The Balfour Declaration stated: “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.”
This appalling display of “Palestinian” victimhood propaganda by Islamic supremacist and Leftist politicians ignores the manifest fact that there never was a state of “Palestine” at any time in history, or a “Palestinian” people until the 1960s, until a certain segment of Levantine Arabs were so designated for political purposes, to create a people even tinier than the people of the State of Israel, so as to offset the public sympathy for the underdog Israel surrounded by giant and hostile Arab Muslim states. PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said this in 1977:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
Nor are there any “Palestinian” refugees. Refugee status was never before granted to the refugee’s children and children’s children; only the “Palestinians” have the honor of never settling anywhere else and getting on with their lives, so consumed are they with jihad-inspired hatred for Israel that they are interested in pursuing nothing else — as are all the Arab states surrounding Israel, none of which except Jordan granted the “Palestinians” citizenship or a chance to live a normal life: they, too, wanted to maintain “Palestinian” “refugee” status as a stick they could use to beat Israel.
The British government of today, meanwhile, is so resolutely clueless and deeply compromised that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it acceded to this demand.
“British MPs, Lords, demand British government to apologise for Balfour Declaration,” from the Palestine Telegraph, November 6 (thanks to Lookmann; grammar and spelling as in the original):
A number of Houses of commons and lords” apologized to the Palestinian people over the Balfour declaration and its impact on the Palestinian people The apology came during a meeting organized by Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) to mark the 96th anniversary of Balfour Declaration at the Houses of common Monday, 4th of November 2013.
The meeting discussed the progress and achievements of the international campaign, “Britain, it’s time to apologies” launched by PRC in 2012.
Member of Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, apologized sincerely for what he described as the historical mistake by Britain. He called on the British government to redeem its mistake and its ongoing impact. Jeremy”s apology was echoed by Liberal Democrats MP David Ward who also called on the British government to help solve the problem and end the plight of the Palestinian people. Ward said that Britain had no right to issue a declaration which caused the displacement of millions of Palestinians.
Amongst those who apologised includes Baroness Jenny Tonge who emphasized the implementation of Palestinian rights especially the right of return which is guaranteed by international law. She stated that Balfour declaration produced an Israeli apartheid state and that the support of Britain to such a state should end. Lord Nazir Ahmed, also amongst the panelists, called on the British government to apologize for its role in the ethnic cleansing and exile of the Palestin people. He also asked Britain to apologise to those countries who suffered under Britain’s colonial past.
Speakers at the seminar also included the Palestinian Ambassador, Prof. Manuel Hassassian, who expressed his deep frustration over the current stance of the British government over Palestine. He deplored the government’s position which is unhelpful and counterproductive. He called on the British government to play a more significant role. He also added that British policy towards Palestine didn’t change substantively.
Head of Media department at PRC and the spokesperson of , “Britain, it’s time to apologize” international campaign stated that more British politicians are joining the campaign. Mr. Habeeb added that other organizations are also joining and that various projects will be launched over the coming months to obtain further support from British people and masses of European and non-European states.