PA daily op-ed to Jewish Israelis: “You are victims of a plan of fraud” by the “colonial powers” since Balfour “made a promise to your foreign forefathers who have no right to the land of our homeland Palestine”
Excerpt of op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, a Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "The third promise after Balfour and Trump"
"The Palestinian patriot has promised his historical and natural land that he will liberate it, and promised his people that he will achieve freedom, independence, and sovereignty, and that Jerusalem will remain the eternal capital of Palestine. The eternal promise was and will remain… as long as the sun shines on the world. Regarding the three promises, they are transient…
With the passing of 100 years since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), the message must be conveyed to the Jewish Israelis, and particularly those among them who were and still are victims of systematic fraud. We say to them with full sincerity: You are victims of a plan of fraud by the greatest colonial powers in the world, since British Foreign Secretary [Arthur] Balfour made a promise to your foreign forefathers who have no right to the land of our homeland Palestine, and until [US President Donald] Trump, who promised you to destroy our spirit, our culture, and our identity when he realized his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of your state… Jewish Israelis, what you need to know is that Great Britain scorned your human value when it used your forefathers as a colonial pawn in the region. That is what Balfour did, who whispered to you unprecedented hatred and prevented you from seeking refuge in Britain during the period when you fled from the rest of Europe. All Balfour did was to export your problem to our land, and colonialist Britain did indeed succeed in using you.
Today, Donald Trump is using you so that he will be able to execute his colonialist agenda; he sees himself as an emperor holding the reins of the world, and sees you as the most fitting pawn and as his iron fist to realize his material aspirations in the most important region in the world. If Trump honored you and loved you, he would pressure your government and cause it to implement the peace agreements with us… The time has come for you to know that no promise will last for long on our land except for the true promise of the Palestinian. You must know that your insistence on being blindly subordinate to the old and new colonialist powers… will not realize the promise of peace, which we Palestinians have wanted as free people and those with the right. All of the colonialist armies and deluded settlers that have invaded our land… have experienced a downfall and left. Learn lessons from this… It remains for us to say to you: Do not dream about the realization of the third promise, which was given to you by your twin, the Muslim Brotherhood organization [Hamas]. They promised you that they will serve as mines for you on our home front, and act to destroy the [Palestinian] cultural and social fabric… You must understand now that they cannot delegitimize any Palestinian patriot, and certainly not the leader of the [Palestinian] National Liberation Movement [Fatah] and the president of the Palestinian people [PA President Mahmoud Abbas], of whom we are proud that he is the only president in the world who has defied you and the neo-colonialist Trump."
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Headline: "The third promise after Balfour and Trump"
"The Palestinian patriot has promised his historical and natural land that he will liberate it, and promised his people that he will achieve freedom, independence, and sovereignty, and that Jerusalem will remain the eternal capital of Palestine. The eternal promise was and will remain… as long as the sun shines on the world. Regarding the three promises, they are transient…
With the passing of 100 years since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), the message must be conveyed to the Jewish Israelis, and particularly those among them who were and still are victims of systematic fraud. We say to them with full sincerity: You are victims of a plan of fraud by the greatest colonial powers in the world, since British Foreign Secretary [Arthur] Balfour made a promise to your foreign forefathers who have no right to the land of our homeland Palestine, and until [US President Donald] Trump, who promised you to destroy our spirit, our culture, and our identity when he realized his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of your state… Jewish Israelis, what you need to know is that Great Britain scorned your human value when it used your forefathers as a colonial pawn in the region. That is what Balfour did, who whispered to you unprecedented hatred and prevented you from seeking refuge in Britain during the period when you fled from the rest of Europe. All Balfour did was to export your problem to our land, and colonialist Britain did indeed succeed in using you.
Today, Donald Trump is using you so that he will be able to execute his colonialist agenda; he sees himself as an emperor holding the reins of the world, and sees you as the most fitting pawn and as his iron fist to realize his material aspirations in the most important region in the world. If Trump honored you and loved you, he would pressure your government and cause it to implement the peace agreements with us… The time has come for you to know that no promise will last for long on our land except for the true promise of the Palestinian. You must know that your insistence on being blindly subordinate to the old and new colonialist powers… will not realize the promise of peace, which we Palestinians have wanted as free people and those with the right. All of the colonialist armies and deluded settlers that have invaded our land… have experienced a downfall and left. Learn lessons from this… It remains for us to say to you: Do not dream about the realization of the third promise, which was given to you by your twin, the Muslim Brotherhood organization [Hamas]. They promised you that they will serve as mines for you on our home front, and act to destroy the [Palestinian] cultural and social fabric… You must understand now that they cannot delegitimize any Palestinian patriot, and certainly not the leader of the [Palestinian] National Liberation Movement [Fatah] and the president of the Palestinian people [PA President Mahmoud Abbas], of whom we are proud that he is the only president in the world who has defied you and the neo-colonialist Trump."
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.