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District Governor of Tulkarem, representing Abbas: We must keep to the will of the Martyrs, “who soaked the land… with their blood

Headline: "Tulkarem: Celebrations of flying the flag from the highest flagpole"
    "Residents of the Tulkarem district celebrated the flying of the Palestinian flag from the highest flagpole in the homeland, whose height is 60 meters…
At the beginning of the celebrations, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas’ representative and Tulkarem District Governor Abu Bakr conveyed the greetings of the president and his appreciation and pride at the placing of the highest flagpole in the homeland in the Tulkarem district, whose height is 60 meters. He emphasized that the flagpole bears a message of loyalty to the blood of the Martyrs (Shahids) and to the sacrifices of the prisoners and the wounded fighters. Abu Bakr added: 'On this day, on which the masses of our people are marking the anniversary of the [Palestinian] declaration of independence and the 12th anniversary of the death as a Martyr of the founding leader who is always among us, Yasser Arafat, we emphasize our adherence to the national fundamental principles and to keeping the wills of the Martyrs, who soaked the land of this precious homeland with their blood. We do not forget to say to the owners of this ominous promise (the Balfour Promise) [parentheses in source] (i.e., Balfour Declaration), whose 100th anniversary is approaching, that we stand firm here, as we will not renounce our right."

Palestinian declaration of independence - On Nov. 15, 1988, before the Palestine National Council (PNC), the Palestinian parliament in exile in Algeria, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat declared the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Although the borders were not specified in the declaration, it recognized the UN partition plan of 1947, which called for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former British Mandate for Palestine.

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” and is seen as the basis for later international commitments to establish the State of Israel.

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