On 109th Anniversary of Balfour Declaration, Hamas Says Palestinian Rights Will Not Be Erased and Right of Return Is Non-Negotiable

The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas affirmed, on the 109th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, that the Palestinian people will remain steadfast on their land and committed to their rights, land and holy sites, and will continue to defend them until liberation and return, stressing that the occupation’s crimes and colonial schemes will not succeed in erasing their national identity or diminishing their established historical rights.

The movement said in a press statement that this year’s anniversary of the Balfour Declaration comes amid the occupation’s escalation of its aggression and crimes in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, where Palestinians in the Strip are living a real tragedy and an ongoing war of genocide, while Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem face dangerous displacement and Judaization projects and plans that violate all international laws and covenants, amid international silence and failure to put an end to this escalating Zionist terrorism.

It added that 109 years have passed since the greatest sin committed against a people in modern history, carried out by the British government through the so-called “Balfour Declaration,” which it described as “a promise by those who do not own to those who do not deserve,” affirming that the colonial mentality still governs this usurping entity and its fascist government through policies of killing, siege, starvation and displacement practiced against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the cities, villages and camps of the occupied West Bank.

The movement affirmed that the “Balfour Declaration” and the political sins that followed against the Palestinian people, their rights and their historical land, and the crimes of killing, displacement, ethnic cleansing and banishment committed by the occupation from that declaration until today, will not succeed in effacing the Palestinian cause and the people’s legitimate rights or erasing them, stressing that these practices and crimes will not lapse with the passage of time no matter how long it takes, and will remain a witness to the terrorism of the occupation and its backers.

It stressed that achieving national unity according to a unified struggle strategy in which all Palestinians participate is the only way to confront the occupation’s schemes and its crimes against the land, the people and the Islamic and Christian holy sites.

The movement renewed its affirmation that the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced is a legitimate and legal established right, from which there is no retreat, no abandonment and no compromise.

Hamas called on the Arab and Islamic nation, and all free people in the world, to take serious action on various tracks to put an end to the escalating terrorism of the occupation, to work to isolate and reject it internationally, and to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their legitimate struggle until their land is liberated and returned to, and the Palestinian state with full sovereignty and Jerusalem as its capital is established.

It also called for serious and effective international action to pressure the occupation government to stop its crimes and terrorism, hold its leaders accountable as war criminals before international courts, and make every responsible effort to enable the Palestinian people to wrest their legitimate rights, foremost among them the liberation of their land and return to it.

The movement offered condolences to the convoys of martyrs who have risen throughout the course of the Palestinian people’s resistance struggle, wished a speedy recovery for the wounded and sick and imminent freedom for the prisoners, and saluted the masses of the Palestinian people wherever they are, calling for greater cohesion and solidarity and for continuing the march of steadfastness and resistance until rights are wrested, the land is liberated and return is achieved.