The Palestinian people mark today the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, while the Israeli schemes aimed to liquidate the Palestinian rights are being rapidly implemented.

The Balfour Declaration is a turning people in the history of the Palestinian cause because it opened the gate for Zionist immigration to Palestine, thus facilitated the implementation of the Zionist project on the land of others.

After the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist project was explicitly inaugurated with the support of some western states, especially Britain. At this point, Zionism found a pretext, which was the illegal Balfour Declaration, to steal the Palestinian land and establish a rogue entity on indigenous people’s land as a “Jewish-nation state”.

The Palestinian people stood against this ominous promise and resisted its implementation. However, the conspiracy surpassed the Palestinians’ utmost power, while Britain was offering all political and logistic assistance to the Zionist gangs, which eventually occupied Palestine and displaced by force the indigenous Palestinians in 1948. Therefore, Britain is held responsible for this unlawful promise, as it is the issuing body and the state that facilitated its implementation.

Furthermore, Britain should apologize for the Palestinian people over the fault of the Balfour Declaration, and up to now, it is held responsible for that unlawful promise, notwithstanding its attempts to evade responsibility or to justify it.

Throughout history, the Palestinian people have proved that they are determined to preserve their homeland in spite of all suffering and miserable conditions they have experienced. The Palestinians, therefore, retain their right to their lands and are prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of their freedom and independence.

This chronicle reflects that the attempts to abolish the Palestinians’ rights are still ongoing, but may have different forms including Oslo Accords, the ‘Deal of the Century’, normalization, and others, all indicatives of how serious the threats are.

On the other hand, the Great Return March and the great sacrifices the Palestinian people have made are advanced steps and national efforts to fight off the Zionist project and its expansion. Indeed, the peaceful protests have enhanced the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and therefore, the march constitutes a ‘deterring power’ against all bids to fake reality and fabricate historical facts about Palestine.

On this occasion, Hamas movement would like to state the following:

1. The movement hails the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, and diaspora for their steadfastness and freedom struggle they are engaged in to foil all the schemes aiming to liquidate the Palestinian national rights, starting from the Balfour Declaration and ending up with the “Deal of Century”.
2. Britain has conducted a gross fault against the Palestinian people who enjoy existence, history, and culture. Now, it should expiate that fault by bringing the rights back to their owners. In other words, a practical apology to the Palestinian people means the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland, historical Palestine, from which they were forced out in 1948, with the assistance of Britain, in addition to compensation and support to the Palestinians in order to restore their freedom and independence.
3. As the existence of the Israeli occupation in Palestine is illegal, it should not be legitimised under whatever pretext.
4. The Palestinian people retain their absolute right to resist the occupation with all means possible until liberating their land and declaring their independence.
5. Hamas vehemently deplores all forms of normalization with the Israeli occupation, labelling normalization a ‘big crime’ and considering it a stab in the back of the Palestinian people who have been making enormous sacrifices to fight off the Israeli occupation.
6. Hamas reiterates its profound belief that the national unity is a strategic necessity all the Palestinian factions should strive for. Accordingly, the Palestinian factions should re-organize the Palestinian political system, based to the internal agreements signed on the basis of national partnership.
7. Hamas urges all free people to support the Great Return March, which is a milestone in the history of Palestine, marking real Palestinian unity.

The Islamic Resistance Movement- Hamas

Friday, November 2, 2018