Al-Zaytouna’s General-Manager Prof. Dr. Mohsen Mohammad Saleh presented the paper “The British Implementation of Balfour Declaration 1918–1948” at the conference “Palestine, Britain and the Balfour Declaration 100 years on” held by Middle East Monitor (MEMO), on 7/10/2017, at the British Library in London.
Saleh discussed eleven pieces of evidence and indicators of the British political and colonial mentality, which was not least interested in the will of the Palestinian people. He asserted that the British policy wilfully committed deception and lying, repudiating its covenants with the Palestinians and Arabs, practicing on the ground procedures that it had known would lead to disastrous consequences for the Palestinians, and deliberately suppressing the Palestinian people and depriving them of their aspirations for freedom and independence. These pieces of evidence and indicators include: The Hussein–McMahon Correspondence 1915–1916; Three other declarations, issued in 1918, which the Arabs believed that they cancelled out the Balfour Declaration and in which they were reassured about the future of Palestine; The British policy chose to comply with the part related to Balfour’s Declaration that dealt with the “Jewish National Home,” while ignored its commitment not to prejudice the rights of the Palestinians, who—according to British estimates—represented 92% of the inhabitants; Britain ignored the essence of its role as a mandatory power, which was granted by the League of Nations, and it did not support the Palestinian people in developing the political, economic and social institutions, and preparing them to obtain their independence; Britain deliberately adopted unjust policies towards Palestinians; Senior British officials were selected from amongst pro-Zionists loyalists to the “Jewish National Home” policy; Britain applied strictly direct colonization controlling all aspects of life; High Commissioners were appointed with distinguished military records; Reshaping and restructuring the legal and Judicial System in accordance with the British policy in Palestine. Thus giving the “legal” cover to crush Palestinian uprisings and revolts, denying Palestinians of their rights, facilitating Jews immigration and settlement, converting land ownership, and granting the Palestinian citizenship to all Jew immigrants; Britain sought to establish a “state for the Jews” rather than just “national home for the Jewish people”; This is in addition to ignoring or abolishing recommendations of investigation committees concerning the land and Jews’ immigration control.
Saleh wrote an article “Why Should Britain Apologize For the Balfour Declaration?” summarizing the conference paper. It was published in Arabic on Aljazeera.net website, and in English on MEMO’s website and other websites.
For the article in Arabic, click here
For the article in English, click here
To watch the Paper presentation, click here
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, 6/11/2017
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