Palestinians to Sue UK Over Balfour Declaration

Date: 08 November 2021 - 21:32

News ID: ۹۶۳۳۷

LONDON (Middle East Eye) -- Members of the Association of the Palestinian Community in the UK (APCUK) are to launch a legal case to compel the British government to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration that promised the creation of a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine.
According to a report published by the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, the organization said “a special lawyer was appointed to carry out the necessary legal procedures.”

Hundreds of Palestinians in Britain participated in a large meeting in the capital, London, on Saturday evening, in which they discussed the 104th anniversary of the “Balfour Declaration” and decided to proceed to establish a lawsuit to demand the government apologize for it.
British lawyer Ben Emmerson, who was officially entrusted by senior representatives of the Palestinian community, presented some evidence on which he will base the lawsuit, including Britain’s direct responsibility for the situation in the Palestinian territories during the period prior to the establishment of the Israeli entity in 1948, when British forces were in charge of the country’s administration.
The meeting was opened by the Palestinian ambassador to London, Husam Zomlot, who pointed out that the Palestinian Nakba (“catastrophe”) led to the displacement of many families and led to the establishment of an apartheid state, and this state that practices crimes and violations against the Palestinians is receiving support from Britain until now.
The “Balfour Declaration” was issued on 2 November 1917 by the then British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, and stated that Britain pledged to facilitate the establishment of a “national home for the Jews on the land of Palestine”.