Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, issued a press release on Monday calling for unity between all Palestinian factions in order to maintain strong resistance against the occupation and ‘Zionism”.
Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, issued a press release on Monday calling for unity between all Palestinian factions in order to maintain strong resistance against the occupation and ‘Zionism”.
The statements of the movement came on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in which the government of Britain, occupying Palestine, granted the Jews a ‘homeland in Palestine”.
Hamas said that Europe, and specifically Britain, must act as ‘they are morally responsible for this crime against the Palestinian people”.
The movement also demanded the Arab and Muslim nations and leaders to act for the liberation of Palestine and its holy sites.
—
The Belfour declaration
Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours 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’.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely
Arthur James Balfour
—
In 1918, the Muslim-Christian Association held protests marking the first anniversary the Belfour Declaring.
The declaration ignored the presence of the natives of the land, the Palestinian people, led to repeated massacres carried out by Zionist groups, including the Hagana organization.
