Fatah in Lebanon: The Balfour Declaration, promising a Jewish national home, was a “crime”
Headline: "Fatah in Lebanon: Britain must bear its responsibility and recognize the crime of the Balfour Promise"
"The Lebanon branch of the Fatah Movement said on the anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that Britain - which was the direct cause of our tragedy, the loss of our land, and the harassment of its people and its expulsion – must bear its full responsibility and fully recognize the crime that it committed through Balfour’s promise to the Jews to establish a national homeland for them on the land of Palestine. The movement demanded in its statement that was published today, Wednesday [Nov. 2, 2016], that the United Kingdom fully recognize the need to establish an independent Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem, to implement the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to the lands that they were expelled from based on UN Resolution 194, to support the resolutions of the international bodies regarding the fate of our people, and to do justice with it by supporting its legal rights, and particularly its right to international protection."
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.
UN resolution 194 (Chapter 11, Dec. 11, 1948) states that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Palestinian leaders argue this means that all Arabs who left Israel during the war (hundreds of thousands) and their descendants (a few million) have a "right of return" to Israel. Israel argues that the resolution only calls for a limited return and only under certain conditions, especially focusing on the words "wishing to return... and live at peace with their neighbors."
"The Lebanon branch of the Fatah Movement said on the anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that Britain - which was the direct cause of our tragedy, the loss of our land, and the harassment of its people and its expulsion – must bear its full responsibility and fully recognize the crime that it committed through Balfour’s promise to the Jews to establish a national homeland for them on the land of Palestine. The movement demanded in its statement that was published today, Wednesday [Nov. 2, 2016], that the United Kingdom fully recognize the need to establish an independent Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem, to implement the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to the lands that they were expelled from based on UN Resolution 194, to support the resolutions of the international bodies regarding the fate of our people, and to do justice with it by supporting its legal rights, and particularly its right to international protection."
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.
UN resolution 194 (Chapter 11, Dec. 11, 1948) states that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Palestinian leaders argue this means that all Arabs who left Israel during the war (hundreds of thousands) and their descendants (a few million) have a "right of return" to Israel. Israel argues that the resolution only calls for a limited return and only under certain conditions, especially focusing on the words "wishing to return... and live at peace with their neighbors."