Official PA Daily denies Jewish connection to Israel
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “National victory day of the free women of Palestine”
“‘We will only drink coffee in the homes of friends’ – this was the response of the free women of Palestine to British occupation representative Lord (sic.) [former High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine John] Chancellor, when he invited them to drink coffee after they submitted a petition. In the petition they demanded to revoke the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), to ban Jewish immigration, and to fire those responsible for torturing the Palestinian prisoners…
National awareness rose to higher and clearer levels – and also the understanding of the existential danger surrounding the Palestinian people in the battle of social, cultural, and political elites – with the start of colonialist Britain’s historical crime against humanity: giving the Zionist organization the right to establish a ‘[national] home for the Jews’ from various and geographically distant peoples that have no historical connection to the Palestinian people’s land and homeland, Palestine (sic., genetic research has conclusively proven modern Jews share a common origin in Israel).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 27, 2022]
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.