Nov 3, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Cairo.
The 2nd of
November marked the 106th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which
supported the establishment of a state for Jewish people in Palestine in 1917,
and considered the seed of the ongoing and prolonged Palestinian-Israeli
conflict.
The ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and the suppression of the West Bank and Jerusalem are the latest series of Israeli aggressions on the Palestinian people since the Balfour Declaration.
The Balfour
Declaration is a letter sent on November 2, 1917, by Arthur Balfour, the
British Foreign Secretary at the time, to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, a
prominent British Zionist, expressing Britain's support for the establishment
of a "Jewish national homeland" in Palestine.
The notion
of kicking the Jews out of Europe and giving them a homeland dates back to
1902, when the British government thought to push them into East Africa or to
the Egyptian city of Arish in Sinai. However, these attempts at Jewish
deportation to the Sinai or East of Africa failed.
During
World War I, the Zionist movement became active and communicated with Germany
and Britain to convince them that the idea of a national home for the Jews
would be in their interest, bedsides assuring them that their so-called state
would be an incentive for the Jews in the United States of America to put
pressure on the government there.
In June
1917, the leader of the international Zionist movement at that time Chaim
Weizmann, who became the first President of Israel in 1948, and the Zionist
leader Walter Rothschild met with the British Field Marshal Horatio Herbert
Kitchener (1st Earl Kitchener), who asked them to draft a statement that
reflects the vision of the Zionist movement regarding Palestine, to be
submitted to the British government for consideration.
As a
result, the British promise was given to establish a national homeland for the
Jews in Palestine. In accordance with this promise, David Ben-Gurion, the
Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization announced the establishment of
the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, the same day that Britain announced the
end of its mandate over Palestine.
On the
106th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the UK Foreign Office in London
was sprayed with slogans like “Britain is guilty.”
Gaza has
been under continued Israeli strikes since October 7 despite global calls for a
ceasefire, which Israel has denied.
Continuing
for nearly a month, the Israeli war in Gaza has killed more than 9,000
Palestinians and injured over 23,500 more people.
Also,
around 1.4 million people have been displaced due to the Israeli air strikes,
with Israel ordering residents to head to southern Gaza, which shares a border
with Egypt.
Egypt Today