"Palestine is ours and will never be a national home for the Jews" - PLO teaches school children to deny Israel’s legitimacy, on anniversary of Balfour Declaration
Headline: “Flying the Palestinian flag at half-mast and national activities for the anniversary of the ominous Balfour Declaration”
“The State of Palestine flew the Palestinian flag at half-mast at the state’s institutions, embassies, and representations in all the states of the world. This was in accordance with [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision on Sunday [Oct. 31, 2021], according to which the flag will be flown at half-mast on November 2 of every year, the anniversary of the ominous Balfour Declaration…
A number of activities took place in the homeland’s districts to mark the 104th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration…
Participating in the activities were PLO Executive Committee members, Fatah Central Committee members, and national action faction members, as well as senior Fatah officials and activists, families of prisoners, and school students.
In Ramallah the [PA] Ministry of Education, the PLO Department of Refugee Affairs, and the Supreme Committee to Commemorate Nakba Day (see note below -Ed.) marked the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
[PA] Minister of Education Marwan Awratani said during the event: ‘Our curriculum is a clearly sovereign and national matter, and it is connected to the Palestinian narrative, identity, and experience. Our position is fixed and must not be compromised on.’ He noted that the occupation has been inciting against our curriculum for years, in order to turn our narrative into a crime and consider establishing each of our rights as incitement against the occupation entity.
Head of the [PLO] Department of Refugee Affairs and PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Abu Houli said that this [Balfour] Declaration established the law of injustice, force, and negating rights for the first time in history. He added that this was the beginning of the ugliest historical injustice that was inflicted on our people of expropriating its land and right to its homeland, and of planting a foreign body that represents the last military colonialism in the world.”
The article includes a picture of female school students holding signs.
Text on signs: “Your [Balfour] Promise will fall and our right will triumph"
“[The promise of] one who has no ownership to one who has no right”
“An invalid promise, the right of return is what is legal”
“No to the Balfour Promise, Nov. 2, 1917”
“Palestine is ours and will never be a national home for the Jews”
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.
Nakba Day - Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day on May 15, the day after the establishment of Israel. On May 15, 1948, combined forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq joined local Arab forces in an attempt to eradicate the newly established State of Israel. The Nakba (Arabic = catastrophe) refers to the establishment of Israel, and the subsequent defeat in the war, including the killing and displacement of Arab civilians that occurred during the war.