Op-ed on Official PA Daily: Balfour’s intention was to “get rid of the Jews by settling them in Palestine”

Excerpt of an op-ed by Athar Hab Al-Rih

Headline: “Balfour stations”

“On November 2 of every year the ominous British [Balfour] Promise (i.e., Declaration) shines in our memories, in which Palestine was handed on a silver platter in 1917 to the Jewish groups spread in all the world’s states. This was not just a promise, but rather a colonialist plan that laid the basis for establishing the occupation entity on our land. This promise was not the outcome of that historical moment, and not a surprising event, but rather the result of previous French, German, and American ‘Balfour-esque’ stations and trends, for the purpose of getting rid of the Jews by settling them in Palestine.”

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.