Crime and struggle — Palestine’s centenary

Last week coincided with the 100th anniversary of the “British crime” against the Palestinians, represented by the Balfour Declaration to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine.

The crime was legalised by the League of Nations through the British Mandate for Palestine. The mandate document included the establishment of a national home for the Jews without any reference to the political rights of the Palestinians; it only referred to the civil and religious rights.

Britain worked vigorously to enable Jewish immigrants to invade Palestinian territories as a preliminary step towards the establishment of Israel, which was recognised by the United Nations.

Britain and its allies usurped the rights of a people who lived on their land, giving this land that they did not possess to immigrants who left their homes in Europe.

Still, until now, the official British conscience never acknowledged this crime and the British government never apologised for committing this historical sin against the Palestinians.

Yet, the Palestinians’ struggle for their rights has never stopped throughout these 100 years. In the process, they lost more than 150,000 martyrs, hundreds of villages, utilities and projects were demolished and millions of people have been driven away by Israeli racial gangs and institutions.

It is an incommensurate battle between a small nation, limited in potentials, that of the Palestinian people, and millions of Jewish immigrants with absolute American and British support, in addition to the Jewish money and the Zionist influence in Europe and America.

British Prime Minister Teresa May’s statement when “celebrating” the centenary of the crime is void of decency, diplomacy and humanity. It is an example of shortsightedness and political hypocrisy.

She does not see the victim at all and celebrates with the felon. This clearly shows that the racial imperial mentality and submissiveness to Zionist pressures are still prevalent in the British government.

The majority of Britons are innocent of this crime, and today they do not agree with the imperial and inhuman approach adopted by their government.

Unfortunately, politicians usually secure their future at the expense of others, and many think of their political positions before thinking of peoples’ rights or of international and human law.

Occupation, expansion, misleading the world public opinion, falsification of facts, distortion of the Palestinian and Arab image, are all important components of the Zionist movement strategy, which is still aggressively seeking to take over the remaining part of the Palestinian territories and some of neighbouring Arab territories, and to wipe out the demographic, cultural and historical existence of the Palestinian people.

Israel, thus, poses a danger to Palestine and neighbouring Arab countries.

Israel is not ready for peace and does not accept the two-state solution along the 1967 borders. Nor have Britain and the US stopped their material, moral, legal, diplomatic and military support for the occupation.

The Palestinians have never given in and are bound to continue their struggle to regain their rights for as long as it takes.

Israel and Zionism strive to lead the Palestinian people to complete surrender before starting serious negotiations, as enjoined by Ze’ev Jabotinsky 80 years ago.

Palestinians, and the rest of the Arabs, need to capitalise on the transformation in the European and American public opinion about Israel’s aggressiveness, racism and absence of seriousness towards peace.

A new phase of struggle based on reason, science, wisdom, patriotism and law should be started, first by consolidating Palestinian unity, renewing its institutions, bridging the gap between the West Bank and Gaza and not allowing Israel to reinstate division.

Second, the Palestinians’ steadfastness on their land should be supported and promoted through all material, moral and legal means.

Third, the BDS, the international boycott movement against Israel, needs to be lent support, and there should be communication with professional, legal, academic and parliamentary groups throughout the world to protest against laws that were issued against BDS. 

Adoption of a popular boycott in the Arab region will be most effective.

Fourth, the distorted image fabricated by Israel about the Palestinians has to be corrected, and the human, intellectual, cultural, artistic, scientific aspects of the Palestinian people has to be highlighted at every meeting, international or popular institutions and on every occasion.

Fifth, Israeli media campaigns and electronic sites that aim to export crises to the Arab communities through distorted religious, sectarian, racial or regional platforms or predicaments and through political expressions that aim to turn Palestinians away from their struggle should be carefully monitored and countered.

And sixth, international parliamentary and legal institutions must be approached and solicited to support Palestinian rights, while asking Britain to apologise for its historical responsibility for the displacement of the Palestinian people.

Palestinians have been struggling for 100 years against Zionist Israeli apartheid and imperialism. 

History is made by freedom-seeking people; the quest for their rights will never stop for the Palestinians.

The writer is former minister of education. He conributed the article to The Jordan Times.