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Abbas: “The Palestinian people – which began its legitimate struggle 100 years ago, ever since the Balfour [Declaration] – will continue the struggle… and will not concede its rights… prime among them the right of return”

Headline: “The [PA] president: The independent State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem will inevitably come”
      “[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas said that the free and independent State of Palestine in the June 4, 1967 borders, whose capital is East Jerusalem, will inevitably come.
On the 28th anniversary of the [Palestinian] declaration of independence, the president added… that the Palestinian state already exists and is recognized, and that no one can ignore it. He noted that what is required now is for Israel to recognize this state as part of the two-state principle, which the international community espouses: two states that will live in security and peace alongside each other.
The president emphasized that the Palestinian people – which began its legitimate struggle 100 years ago, ever since the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) – will continue the struggle, will not submit, and will not concede its national and legitimate principles and rights, which rest on the decisions of the international institutions, and prime among them the right of return [of the refugees], self-determination, and the establishment of the Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.”

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.” 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.

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