Israeli Arabs to protest Balfour Declaration anniversary

CAIRO – 28 October 2017: Israel’s Arab minority will organize a protest on November 7 outside the British embassy in Tel Aviv to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, according to Jerusalem Post.

The protest comes five days after the anniversary of the declaration by foreign secretary Arthur Balfour regarding the British government “[viewing] with favor the establishment a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this project,” without harming the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

The Palestinians see that the declaration is a starting point of illegal evictions and a process of dispossession, and that it favors Jewish citizens through the spread of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as the Knesset’s efforts to treat Israeli Arabs as second-class citizens.


Israel s’ Arab organize a protest - File photo
“In 1917, less than 10% of the population was Jewish and more than 90% Arab. The British gave to the Jews something that didn’t belong to them,” said Raja Zaatr, an official of the High Follow-up Committee, the Arab community’s leadership body in Israel.

“During the mandate, until 1948, they helped the Zionist movement build the state, allowed immigration and assisted the Zionists. We are asking that they take responsibility for the Palestinians’ suffering and meet a concrete demand: recognize Palestine as a state in the UN,” he added.

“The West Bank and Gaza are still under occupation. They are not recognized as a country by Britain, so it is actually supporting the occupation. British people should rethink their history of colonialism and their role in this country,” he said.

“1967 was not the year of occupation, but it was 1917, when the Balfour Declaration was signed. This means that after a hundred years, they haven’t accepted the existence of a Jewish state in which they have equal rights,” he added.

For Zionists, this was a major turning point in reestablishing Jewish sovereignty in what they view as their historic homeland.