Palestine puts Britain on trial under the charge that “the British Mandate bears responsibility for the crimes that the Zionist movement committed”
Headline: “Legal precedent – a lawsuit in the Palestinian courts against Britain, over the [British] Mandate and the Balfour Promise (i.e., declaration)”
“In a first of its kind precedent, the Palestinian legal system received a national lawsuit yesterday [Oct. 22, 2020] against the government of Britain over the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and its soldiers’ crimes against the Palestinian people during the occupation of the land (the [British] Mandate) [parentheses in source] between 1920 and 1948.
The lawsuit was announced at a press conference about putting Britain on trial for the declaration of the Balfour Promise and its crimes during the period of its military government and Mandate in Palestine. The press conference, under the title ‘Our right from Balfour,” was organized by the National Association of Independents in partnership with the [Palestinian] Journalists’ Syndicate
The lawsuit, which has a political impact and a media aspect, lays the responsibility on the government of Britain for the consequences of the Balfour Promise, which gave Palestine as a national homeland to the Jews and enabled the Zionist gangs to occupy Palestine, and the consequences that stem from its behavior that contradicts international rules, morals, and law. The head of the National Association of Independents, Munib Rashid Al-Masri, Head of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of the 1948 Territories (i.e., Israel) Mohammad Barakeh (also former member of the Israeli Parliament -Ed.), Head of the [Palestinian] Journalists’ Syndicate Nasser Abu Bakr, head of the legal team Attorney Nael Al-Houh, and head of the team documenting the Palestinian story, historian Mustafa Kabha, spoke at the press conference…
Barakeh emphasized our [Palestinian] people’s firm right to its homeland, and that it is a deeply rooted right that has no statute of limitations. Barakeh said that the Palestinian legal system is entitled to examine these lawsuits, and that this needs to start a movement towards putting Britain and Israel on trial at the hands of any Palestinian with foreign citizenship who has the possibility of putting them on trial, even privately, which would constitute pressure and a siege on the Zionist Israeli discourse. Barakeh emphasized that this step, with all its significance and symbolism, is not a replacement for the [Palestinian] political struggle, resistance to the occupation, the diplomatic activity, or strengthening the international solidarity movement, but rather it will open other doors to put the Zionist movement and Britain on trial. He said: ‘The Balfour Promise and everything that appeared in it was an attack against the Palestinian people’s rights, and the British Mandate also bears responsibility for the crimes that the Zionist movement committed, because it was the authority at the time and it was the one that paved the way and facilitated this.’”
Mohammad Barakeh is a former Israeli Arab Parliament member.
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.