Gaza Government Media Office: Balfour Declaration Is the Root of Aggression and Our People’s Right to Their Land Does Not Expire

The Government Media Office in Gaza has affirmed that the ill-fated Balfour Declaration remains a root of aggression, and that the Palestinian people’s right to their land and to a fully sovereign state is neither negotiable nor subject to a statute of limitations.

In a statement marking the 109th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the office said the false pledge, which the British government gave from those who did not own to those who did not deserve, constituted the actual foundation of the largest humanitarian, political and rights catastrophe in modern history, through the expropriation of the land of historic Palestine and the forcing of an indigenous people into displacement and exile and the stripping of their sovereign national rights.

It explained that recalling this anniversary comes amid exceptional circumstances the Palestinian people are passing through, specifically in the Gaza Strip, which is subjected to unprecedented aggression and siege.

The office affirmed that the United Kingdom (Britain) bears, in legal, historical and moral terms, direct responsibility for the catastrophic consequences that followed the Balfour Declaration and the practices of the Mandate era that paved the way for the uprooting and displacement of the Palestinian people, noting that this pledge represents a flagrant breach of the rules of international law and the principles of the UN Charter concerning the right of peoples to self-determination, and that the legal and compensatory consequences arising from it do not expire with time.

It added that the crimes, systematic destruction and attempts at forced displacement witnessed in the Gaza Strip and all the occupied Palestinian territories at the hands of the Israeli occupation are nothing but a structural and direct extension of the environment created by the Balfour Declaration, which was built on denying the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, providing political immunity to the occupation, and continuing the policy of double standards and negative neutrality toward the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

It pointed out that all decisions and political deals that attempt to circumvent the rights of the Palestinian people are legally void and null in the community of nations, as no state or external party has the right to dispose of the land of Palestine or decide the fate of its people, affirming that the Palestinian people’s right to their historic land, to return to their homes in accordance with relevant international resolutions, and to establish their independent, fully sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital, is an inherent and firm right that is neither negotiable nor subject to forfeiture.

The Government Media Office called on the United Kingdom (Britain) to courageously review its historical position in commitment to international law, to announce a formal and comprehensive apology to the Palestinian people for the Balfour Declaration and its repercussions, and to bear the legal and compensatory consequences resulting from decades of displacement and suffering.

It also called on the international community, the United Nations and international human rights and judicial institutions to assume their legal and moral responsibilities to end the Israeli occupation, hold those who commit crimes against the Palestinian people accountable, and lift the unjust siege on the Gaza Strip immediately and permanently.

It also demanded an immediate halt to the provision of political and military cover for the Israeli occupation, and direct and full recognition of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people’s absolute right to self-determination.

It stressed that the Palestinian people, who have faced the effects of this ill-fated pledge for more than a century, will remain attached to their land and steadfast in their homeland, noting that void decisions and attempts at erasure will not succeed in falsifying historical truth or breaking the will of a people who possess right, justice and existence.