Fatah official: Jews have been instruments for the British colonialist project in Palestine

Palestinian National Council member, Fatah Revolutionary Council member, and regular columnist for the official PA daily Muwaffaq Matar to PA TV News: "Our message 101 years after the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) is that the Jews in the world – since they have been nothing but instruments and servants of the colonial powers – the time has come for them to comprehend that the colonial powers that gave them these promises and still give them promises do not honor their human value… The Balfour Promise of Foreign Secretary of Britain [Arthur Balfour] gave the Jews part of the land of Palestine so that it would be a base for the colonial settlement project and an extension of and service for the British colonialist project." 

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.