Palestinian FM urges UK to recognize Palestinian state

RAMALLAH - 2 November 2017: The Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged on Thursday the UK government to shoulder its responsibility and correct the historical injustices it committed against the Palestinian people.

In a statement on the occasion of the centenary of the calamitous Balfour declaration, the ministry renewed its call for the UK government to recognize the Palestinian state in order to put an end to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian lands and help establishe an independent Palestinian state, with Al Quds as its capital.

The British government's disregard of this just demand is losing its credibility in advocating the rights of peoples to self-determination and the principles of human rights and democracy, international law and human justice, the ministry added.

The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government during World War I announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.

The then British foreign minister Lord Balfour unleashed historic forces that changed the fate of an entire people and a whole region. He committed a grave sin: promising the homeland of one people to another.