PA foreign minister: The Balfour Declaration was a “historic injustice”
“PA Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki welcomed the decision of the British House of Commons to recognize the State of Palestine, despite its being [merely] a symbolic decision, describing it as a ‘historic event’ and a ‘correction of the injustice’ inflicted by the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration). In his statement, Al-Maliki called [the decision] ‘a correction of the historic injustice which denied the rights of the Palestinian people by considering Palestine ‘a country without a people for a people without a country’ – alluding to the promise made by British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour from 1917, in which he committed [himself] to ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.’”
Note: 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 view 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.
Note: 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 view 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.