PLO: Balfour Declaration was “the most despicable plot” serving "colonialist states'” interests, “a great crime against humanity”

Text posted on the official Fatah Facebook page

Posted text: “A statement that was issued by the PLO factions for the anniversary of ‘the Balfour Promise’ (i.e., Declaration)

Nov. 2, 2019

O masses of our resolved people,

Tomorrow will be the 102nd anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise, which is the most despicable plot in the history of the peoples. This plot was committed against the Palestinian Arab people because the interests of the colonialist states – and foremost among them Britain and the US after it – met with the interests of the world Zionist movement in establishing ‘a national entity for the Jews,’ which was planted in the body of the Arab homeland, whose heart is Palestine, in such a way that it would guarantee a continuation of the control of the region, the looting of its resources, [and] the prevention of its development and prosperity, and it would stand in the way of its unity. And to this day Palestine and the region in general are suffering from the catastrophic consequences of this promise, which constitutes a great crime against humanity.”

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.