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Palestinian
Hamas supporters hold Hamas flags as they take part in a rally to show
solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, in the West Bank
city of Nablus May 15, 2014. © Abed Omar Qusini / Reuters
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Palestinian political
Islamists Hamas have demanded Britain apologize for agreeing to establish a
Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1917, a move experts say had “profound and
pervasive” consequences for those who lived there. Hamas released its
statement Monday to coincide with the 98th anniversary of the declaration. It
claimed the 1917 agreement between then British Foreign Secretary Arthur
Balfour and influential Jewish community leader Baron Walter Rothschild is now
null and void.
The
original declaration, which aimed to combine two apparently contradictory aims,
read: “His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine
of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that
nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political
status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
RT report continues:
The
Israeli News Network reports Hamas wants Britain to apologize for the
declaration, retract it and admit it was a mistake.
“The
path of our people towards freedom, return and liberation goes like the path of
other peoples who were under occupation – through struggle by all methods and
means, first and foremost an armed struggle,” the statement said.
Speaking
to the Daily Mail, Oxford University history professor Avi Shlaim said the
Balfour agreement continued to resonate throughout the region and beyond.
“Its
consequences were both profound and pervasive, and its impact on the subsequent
history of the Middle East was nothing less than revolutionary,” he said.
“It
completely transformed the position of the fledgling Zionist movement vis-à-vis
the Arabs of Palestine, and it provided a protective umbrella that enabled the
Zionists to proceed steadily towards their ultimate goal of establishing an
independent Jewish state in Palestine.”
The
declaration’s impact was out of proportion to its size. It took the form of a
mere letter from one party to another and yet, Shlaim says, defines the state
of the Middle East to this day.
“Rarely
in the annals of the British Empire has such a short document produced such
far-reaching consequences,” he said.
A
number of former British colonies have recently called for relations between
themselves and the former imperial power to be redressed.
In
September, Barbadian historian Sir Hilary Beckles reminded David Cameron that
the prime minister’s own family was enriched by slavery in the Caribbean
colonies.
In
July, Indian politician Shashi Tharoor debated Britain’s past occupation of
India at an Oxford Union debate.
“Britain’s rise for 200
years was financed by its depredations in India. We paid for our own
oppression. It’s a bit rich to oppress, maim, kill, torture and repress and
then celebrate democracy at the end of it,” Tharoor said at the debate.
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