Abbas compares Trump peace plan to Balfour Declaration: “We will not let them pass this”

Official PA TV, live broadcast of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the PA memorial service for former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat in Ramallah

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “If the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) passed, the deal of the century (referring to US President Donald Trump’s as yet unpublished Middle East peace plan –Ed.) will not pass. We here are standing firm. We are thorns in their throats and eyes and will not let them pass this. We will continue to struggle until the end of the world for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of its independent state...”

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 favor of partitioning Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947. In response, Britain ended its mandate on May 15, 1948, and the Palestinian Jews, who accepted the Partition Plan, declared the independent State of Israel. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the plan and together with 7 Arab states attacked Israel, in what is now known as Israel's War of Independence.