{"id":91818,"date":"2017-05-08T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=91818"},"modified":"2017-05-04T12:56:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T11:56:02","slug":"balfours-legacy-the-destruction-of-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/05\/balfours-legacy-the-destruction-of-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"Balfour\u2019s Legacy: The Destruction of Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Palestinian woman holds and protests the right to her home from 1948, during the 68th anniversary of the ‘Nakba’ in Ramallah, West Bank.<\/p><\/div>\n

Author Salman Abu Sitta addressed the UK\u2019s House of Lords on 28 Mar 2017 to discuss the Balfour Declaration and its consequences on the Palestinians. This year marks a century since the document was signed and the future of the State of Palestine was sealed.<\/em><\/p>\n

15 Apr 2017 – <\/em>We are witnessing today the longest war against a people:<\/p>\n

A hundred years of the Palestinian people\u2019s struggle for freedom and independence in their own country.<\/p>\n

A hundred years of death and destruction in the region.<\/p>\n

The hundred years witnessed the destruction of Palestine\u00a0and the dispersion of its people.<\/p>\n

Watch: #Nakba<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such an act was made possible by the largest, longest, comprehensive, pre-meditated and still continuous ethnic cleansing operation in modern history.<\/p>\n

A hundred years of violating every article\u00a0in human rights and international law,\u00a0without remedy or recourse.<\/p>\n

A hundred years culminating in the only colonial project in existence today.<\/p>\n

The irony is that\u00a0Palestine was not intended to be a colony at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Britain was entrusted to build government institutions\u00a0in Palestine and Iraq (both as Mandate class A). It was due set a democratic independent country\u00a0serving the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

It was in fulfillment of the \u201cSacred Trust of\u00a0Civilisation\u201daccording to the Charter of the League of Nations.<\/p>\n

Instead,\u00a0it was converted\u00a0into a colonial project\u00a0for the benefit of\u00a0European\u00a0Jewish colonists\u00a0who were not inhabitants of the country.<\/p>\n

It was even worse than a colonial project.<\/p>\n

Unlike any other\u00a0colonial\u00a0project, it\u00a0eventually ended up with the\u00a0mass\u00a0expulsion of the majority of the population, the confiscation of their land and property, the destruction of their landscape and the erasure of their geography and history.\u00a0It was the most\u00a0tragic\u00a0event in Palestine\u2019s 5,000 year history.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s secret<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1916, while\u00a0the Allies planes were dropping leaflets on the Arabs\u00a0in WWI\u00a0exhorting them to fight the\u00a0Turks\u00a0and gain independence and freedom, Britain\u2019s Mark Sykes and the France\u2019s Georges Picot sat in a closed room with a map of the Middle East,\u00a0planning how\u00a0to\u00a0carve it between them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Arthur James Balfour [Wikipedia]<\/p><\/div>One year later,\u00a0Arthur James Balfour, Britain\u2019s foreign minister,\u00a0concluded\u00a0a secret agreement with rich European Jews to facilitate the establishment of \u201ca Jewish national home\u201d, not a state, in,\u00a0not of,\u00a0Palestine. He kept this agreement under lock\u00a0and key. Meanwhile\u00a0British forces\u00a0entered Palestine in the spring of 1917 and bombarded Gaza using poison gas shells (yes) and destroyed most of its ancient buildings, but\u00a0were defeated\u00a0twice\u00a0at Gaza gates.<\/p>\n

On the evening of 31 October 1917, Allenby forces captured\u00a0Beer Sheba in a surprise attack\u00a0from the east. The gates of Palestine were\u00a0laid\u00a0open. Allenby sent a\u00a0cable\u00a0to London on 1 November 1st:\u00a0\u201cWe captured Beer Sheba. Jerusalem will be your Christmas present\u201d.\u00a0Balfour opened his drawer and made public his secret agreement on 2 November 1917.<\/p>\n

Balfour was not ashamed of his deed. He plainly stated his position:<\/p>\n

For in Palestine we do not propose even to go\u00a0through\u00a0the form of consulting the wishes [not rights]\u00a0of the present population of the county.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If these were\u00a0expedient\u00a0political\u00a0statements, the subsequent British actions\u00a0in Palestine put these words in action.<\/p>\n

The first act was to select a Zionist British minister,\u00a0Herbert Samuel,\u00a0to be the first High Commissioner of Palestine,\u00a0whose\u00a0official\u00a0task was to bring to Palestine independence and a working government.<\/p>\n

Samuel did the opposite. He created\u00a0the\u00a0roots\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0rise\u00a0of Israel.\u00a0<\/strong>In his tenure (1920-1925),\u00a0legally only from 1922,\u00a0he created the foundations\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0future\u00a0state of\u00a0Israel;\u00a0he promulgated\u00a0dozens of\u00a0laws which\u00a0facilitated\u00a0Jewish acquisition\u00a0of\u00a0Palestinian land;\u00a0recognised\u00a0Hebrew as an official language;\u00a0established\u00a0separate\u00a0Jewish\u00a0institutions:\u00a0banking system, educational system,\u00a0labour\u00a0union (Histadrut), Public Works (Soleh\u00a0Boneh), power generation\u00a0company\u00a0(Rosenberg).\u00a0But the most\u00a0critical\u00a0laws\u00a0for\u00a0the elimination of\u00a0Palestine\u00a0were the creation of\u00a0a separate Jewish\u00a0legislative council\u00a0and separate Jewish armed forces\u00a0(Haganah),\u00a0which eventually conquered Palestine.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s legal language, Samuel laid the foundations of Apartheid Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The rise of apartheid<\/strong><\/p>\n

Samuel issued many of these laws\u00a0without authority<\/em>,\u00a0neither\u00a0from the\u00a0League of Nations,\u00a0which approved the Mandate only on 24 July 1922,\u00a0nor\u00a0on\u00a0authority from the\u00a0Colonial Office in London which often rejected Samuel\u2019s formulation.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0flood\u00a0of Jewish European settlers to Palestine reached its peak about the middle of the 1930\u2019s. At the end of 1936,\u00a0the total\u00a0Jewish immigrant population\u00a0rose to 384,000 or 28 per cent\u00a0of the whole population (from nine per cent at the beginning of the Mandate).\u00a0This ignited the Palestinian Arab Revolt (1936-1939).<\/p>\n

The revolt was met with utmost\u00a0British brutality. The RAF bombed villages indiscriminately. The\u00a0rising casualties\u00a0of civilians enraged the population and\u00a0increased\u00a0the\u00a0number of\u00a0those who joined\u00a0the ranks of\u00a0the rebels\u00a0(called \u201cbandits\u201d by the British).\u00a0British\u00a0forces attacked the villages, destroyed their supplies and held the men in cages for two days without food or water. Collective punishment was applied widely. Political parties were dissolved. Leaders were imprisoned or deported.<\/p>\n

The British forces\u00a0at this time\u00a0(25-50,000 soldiers) were assisted occasionally by\u00a0Jewish\u00a0armed\u00a0forces, notably 20,000 Jewish policemen, supernumeraries and settlement guards in addition to providing intelligence\u00a0information.<\/p>\n

A minimum\u00a0estimate of Palestinian casualties\u00a0was: 5,000 killed, 15,000 wounded and\u00a0a\u00a0similar number jailed. More than 100\u00a0men\u00a0were executed,\u00a0including leaders such as the 80-year-old Sheikh\u00a0Farhan\u00a0Al-Sa\u2019di,\u00a0who was hanged\u00a0while fasting\u00a0in Ramadan on 22 November 1937. Thus,\u00a0about\u00a050 per cent of all\u00a0male\u00a0adults in the mountainous\u00a0region of Palestine,\u00a0corresponding roughly to the West Bank today, where the revolt was\u00a0particularly\u00a0active,\u00a0had been wounded or jailed by the British.<\/p>\n

By 1939, the Palestinian\u00a0society was dismembered,\u00a0defenceless and leaderless.\u00a0The year\u00a01939 can be identified as the British-inflicted\u00a0Nakba.<\/p>\n

Almost ten\u00a0years later, Ben\u00a0Gurion\u00a0carried out\u00a0the\u00a0Zionist-inflicted\u00a0Nakba\u00a0of 1948.<\/p>\n

Zionists attacking Britain<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the conclusion of WWII, the Zionists rewarded Britain for its support,\u00a0which opened Palestine\u2019s doors to a flood of Jewish immigrants. The Zionists started a terror campaign against\u00a0their erstwhile benefactors.\u00a0They bombed British HQ, hanged British soldiers and kidnapped British judges.<\/p>\n

In 1945, Britain had to fly the 6th Airborne Division to Palestine to\u00a0fight Zionist terrorism. Its aim was not to save Palestine but to save its soldiers.<\/p>\n

Zionists\u00a0also assassinated Count\u00a0Folke\u00a0Bernadotte, the UN mediator appointed to bring peace to Palestine.<\/p>\n

Jewish actions were described as \u201cterrorism\u201d by the UN Security Council in\u00a0Resolution 57\u00a0of\u00a01948. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the\u00a0remaining six weeks of the Mandate,\u00a0the Zionists\u00a0attacked and\u00a0depopulated 220 Palestinians villages\u00a0and committed\u00a0massacres,\u00a0the most infamous was\u00a0Deir\u00a0Yassin. The task of the British was to protect the Palestinians.\u00a0What did they\u00a0do?<\/p>\n

They did not intervene.<\/p>\n

They did not\u00a0intervene\u00a0when\u00a0over\u00a0a\u00a0dozen massacres were committed against Palestinian villages.\u00a0Deir\u00a0Yassin\u00a0was the most notorious.\u00a0The British Chief of Police in Jerusalem was a few kilometres away, but he did nothing. The expulsion of Palestinians from\u00a0Tiberias\u00a0was\u00a0assisted\u00a0by\u00a0the British\u00a0providing transport for the expelled\u00a0population. In the massive evacuation of Haifa\u2019s Palestinian population, the British forces did not defend the population, but assisted their departure.<\/p>\n

The fall of Haifa speaks volumes about the failure of General\u00a0Stockwell\u00a0to\u00a0discharge his duties and protect the population. The charges against him and his \u201ccooperation\u201d with the invading Zionists remains to this day a black spot on his record.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The handwritten book of signals between the British patrols along the Jaffa-Jerusalem axis and their HQ.<\/p><\/div>\n

The handwritten book of signals\u00a0between the British patrols along the Jaffa-Jerusalem axis and their HQ in\u00a0the critical period\u00a0of\u00a0April-May 1948 is a damning record of the British collusion and failure to honor their obligations.<\/p>\n

In the wireless Log (No. 129) of Duty Troops\u00a0(April and May 1948), there are\u00a0frequent entries showing\u00a0the refusal of the British Army to rescue Palestinian villagers\u00a0when\u00a0attacked by Jews. The\u00a0army was\u00a0ordered to watch, report and not\u00a0to\u00a0interfere. When Jews asked for help, the\u00a0troops\u00a0were ordered to rescue them.<\/p>\n

According to the Log,\u00a0Deir\u00a0Muheisen\u00a0village was burning under the mortar of Jewish\u00a0Haganah\u00a0and its people were screaming for help while the British forces were watching and doing nothing. Their reports derided the Palestinians by calling them\u00a0wogs.<\/p>\n

The unceremonious departure of the British left the country in a state of chaos\u00a0and despair. It was the most disgraceful\u00a0British\u00a0departure from any place in the British Empire.<\/p>\n

Britain did not hand over a functioning government to the Palestinians as its duty dictated. The British left Palestine in the hands of European Jewish settlers who were admitted to the country by Britain,\u00a0trained by Britain and armed by Britain. The settlers\u2019 first task was to terrorise the British themselves and chase them out of Palestine.<\/p>\n

The last High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir Alan Cunningham, left Palestine with no word of goodbye, neither\u00a0from the losing Arabs\u00a0nor the winning Jews.<\/p>\n

It is indeed\u00a0amazing\u00a0<\/em>and a sorry reflection on British policy, that instead of standing by its obligations to protect Palestinians and to deliver free and democratic Palestine, Britain, one year after\u00a0the\u00a0Nakba,\u00a0together with the United States and France,\u00a0issued the Tripartite Declaration of 1950 against any attempt to change the status quo, that is the destruction of Palestine and the expulsion of its people.<\/p>\n

The history that followed, from the Tripartite Aggression of 1956, also known as the Suez Campaign, to Theresa May\u2019s suppression of freedom of speech<\/a>\u00a0about Israel\u2019s atrocities, just shows that Balfour\u2019s legacy is\u00a0still\u00a0alive and well in 10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n

I am sure the majority of the British people are not in agreement with this shameful legacy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Palestinians being expelled and travelling to find refuge during the 1948 exodus or otherwise known as the Nakba.<\/p><\/div>\n

Demanding justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

After 100 years of Palestinian suffering, we are entitled today to appeal to<\/p>\n

ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD CONSCIENCE\u00a0in\u00a0Britain,\u00a0and there are many of them,\u00a0and\u00a0in\u00a0the whole world, to join us in this demand:<\/p>\n

We call on the British Government:<\/p>\n

To apologise to the Palestinian people for their suffering during a century of death and destruction, still\u00a0with no end in sight, due to it wilfully or carelessly failing to undertake its duties and obligations,<\/p>\n

To pay full compensation for all direct and consequential losses and damages to the Palestinian people,<\/p>\n

Ibrahim Hewitt:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Everything Israel does is part of a plan, not a forced \u2018response\u2019 to \u2018terrorism\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To comply with the rules and directives set out in the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice regarding the Wall of 9 July 2004,<\/p>\n

To make amends by assisting, as required for the purpose, in the establishment of a free democratic Palestine, by means such as:<\/p>\n

By correcting its policies within the United Kingdom and in the international arena such that the inalienable Palestinian rights are fully realised,<\/p>\n

By helping, as a primary actor, in the rebuilding of Palestine and the repatriation of its people,<\/p>\n

By reflecting the actual Palestinian history and suffering of the people in school curriculum and in the media,<\/p>\n

And by any other means found necessary to achieve the aim of a free and independent Palestine.<\/p>\n

On all the above, we call on all people of conscience in\u00a0Britain and\u00a0the world to stand by these\u00a0demands\u00a0for restoring Palestine\u00a0and bringing justice, freedom and peace to its people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo from the Palestinian \u2018Nakba\u2019 in 1948.<\/p><\/div>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr Salman Abu Sitta is a Palestinian researcher. He writes about Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian right of return.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 middleeastmonitor.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Salman Abu Sitta addressed the UK\u2019s House of Lords on 28 Mar 2017 to discuss the Balfour Declaration and its consequences on the Palestinians. This year marks a century since the document was signed and the future of the State of Palestine was sealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}