Israel is "dismantling Palestinian “affiliation and identity”, lies ex-Israeli Arab MK - "Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are desecrated, the right of people to carry out religious ceremonies is violated"
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, broadcast from Nazareth on the 104th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration
Chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel and former Israeli Arab MP Muhammad Barakeh: “This [Balfour] Promise (i.e., Declaration) constitutes the colonialist foundation of the Zionist movement, of the Zionist project, not only as a settler project but also as an economic and military spearhead in the Arab region in general…
I want to direct attention to a date that not many remember and that was marked a number of days ago – the memorial day of the Kafr Qassem massacre on Oct. 29, 1956 (see note below -Ed.). Two things happened on this day – we remember Kafr Qassem, but it was also the day the Tripartite Aggression (i.e., the 1956 Sinai War) against Egypt began. Israel, Britain, and France launched an attack to bring down the government of pan-Arab [Egyptian] President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In other words, this Zionist project’s goal was to clear the Palestinians from their land, to establish a colonialist entity on the Palestinian land, and to remain like a spearhead controlling the throats of the Arab peoples. This was by creating forces cooperating with the West or weaving plots with the West, and by creating a threat to the [Arab] governments that were liable to threaten this project. What has changed in these 104 years [since the Balfour Promise]? This project is not a memory. It is still being implemented on the ground to this day…
But what was possible in 1948 is no longer possible today, since the Palestinian people has picked itself up – it has the PLO and international experience. In other words, the idea of [population] transfer no longer exists as it did. Therefore, they are carrying out another project – a project of transferring and expelling [Palestinians] from the affiliation and identity, dismantling the identity. We see this in the Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) through the crime [in the Arab sector] and the like, and in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip we see this through imposition of a blockade, through the poverty, and through placing a ceiling of aspirations for the Palestinian people – to get through the day with a slice of bread and living securely for that day…
Even the cultural and religious rights are being violated. It is true that they speak about freedom of worship in Jerusalem as if Israel is protecting it. What freedom of worship are they talking about? The Al-Aqsa Mosque is desecrated, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is desecrated, the right of the people to carry out their religious ceremonies is violated. Not only is our right being violated at our holy sites, but they also want to share these sites with us.”