Publish date27 Jul 2016 - 8:34
Story Code : 239700

Palestine to sue UK over Balfour Declaration

Palestine says it is planning to lodge a complaint against Britain for its 1917 Balfour Declaration that provided the grounds for occupation of Palestine and birth of Israeli nation on the occupied territories.
Palestine to sue UK over Balfour Declaration
Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki made the announcement in a recent address to the Arab League summit in Mauritania seen by AFP on Tuesday.

The Balfour Declaration, which was issued in November 1917 by the then British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour, said the UK government "views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

The declaration set the stage for the Nakba (Catastrophe) Day that refers to the 1948 Palestinian exodus when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Israel during the 1948 Palestine war.

Speaking on behalf of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Maliki called on the Arab League to assist Palestinians in bringing a criminal case against the UK.

"Almost a century has passed since 1917," he said, adding, "We are working to open up an international criminal case for the crime which they committed against our nation – from the days of the British Mandate all the way to the massacre which was carried out against us from 1948 onwards.”

Under the declaration, "hundreds of thousands of Jews from Europe and elsewhere came to settle in Palestine at the expense of our people, whose ancestors have lived for millennia on the soil of our land," the top Palestinian diplomat pointed out.

In November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” despite strong opposition from Israel and the US.

That status empowered the Palestinians to achieve membership in UN bodies and treaties. The Palestinians also joined the International Criminal Court in 2015.

The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds and the Gaza Strip. They are also demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian lands occupied in a 1967 war.

KD
https://taghribnews.com/vdcawonuw49ne01.tgk4.html
Your Name
Your Email Address
Security Code