Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has called for the establishment of an international committee in order to prosecute Britain legally and politically over the consequences of the Balfour declaration.

The Refugees Affairs Office of Hamas has issued a statement on the 100th anniversary of Balfour declaration holding the British government legally, politically and morally responsible for the repercussions of that infamous declaration that led to the dispossession Palestinian people.

The statement stressed the importance of bringing those responsible for this Declaration to account in accordance with both humanitarian and criminal laws. Over 100,000 Palestinians were killed and thousands of others were displaced as a result of Balfour declaration, it highlighted. 

Colonization of Palestine

November 2, 2017, marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. This document supported and entrenched the colonization of Palestine. It laid the foundation for the 1948 Nakba or catastrophe, the ethnic cleansing of the majority of the indigenous people of Palestine at the hands of Zionist militias, the illegal Israeli regime in Palestine.

British foreign secretary, Arthur James Balfour, issued his famous promise in a letter written to a senior leader of the Zionist movement, Lord Rothschild, pledging that Britain is doing its utmost to establish a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Declaration of war on Palestinians

From the perspective of its Palestinian victims, this fateful statement by the British government, issued with typical colonial hubris and deep-seated racism towards non-European populations, constituted a declaration of war against our people. It facilitated and attempted to legitimize the establishment of a Jewish “national home” in Palestine, stripping Palestinians of their national and political rights, and giving birth, eventually, to an Israeli settler-colonial and apartheid state that privileges the rights of predominantly European Jewish colonizers over the rights of the indigenous Palestinian majority.

US backs Israeli crimes

Today, this ongoing Palestinian Nakba, which entails Israel’s relentless land theft, dispossession, denial of human rights and legalized racial discrimination against Palestinians, would not be possible without massive military, economic and political support from the US government—Israeli regime’s prime sponsor—alongside the European Union and complicit states, international organizations and corporations.

Meanwhile, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says The Balfour Declaration, which laid the foundation for the establishment of Israel in Palestine, created a century-long series of injustice towards Palestinian rights. Euro-Med held Britain responsible for the violations that were linked to the fulfillment of the promise on the ground at a time when Palestine was under British Mandate.

The Euro-Med has called on Britain to stand by its responsibilities in recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people and to end the long-term Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Euro-Med stresses that the Balfour declaration was a clear dismissal of the rights of the residents of Palestine at the time. Neither Palestinian opinion was taken into account nor their response to the promise details that would affect their lives and their right to self-determination.

The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also released a statement on Thursday,calling on the British government to “apologize to the Palestinian people for the suffering caused as a result of the Balfour Declaration a hundred years ago.”