Off the wire
• Top news items in Ethiopia's major media outlets  • ADB lends Sri Lanka 60 mln USD for clean drinking water in CKD prone areas  • CPC regulation pledges no exception in intra-Party supervision  • China's Xi lashes out at political cliques, election fraud  • France begins moving Calais camp minors to reception centers  • CPC publicizes documents on intra-Party political life, supervision  • Palestinians reject train links between West Bank and Jerusalem  • Urgent: 2 U.S. police shot dead in Iowa in apparent ambush-style attacks  • ADB commits 8 bln USD loan for Bangladesh under new partnership  • Singapore to support IMF's initiatives targeted at low-income countries  
You are here: 　 Home

PNA demands UK recognition of Palestinian rights in declaration

Xinhua, November 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has officially demanded that Britain annul the Balfour Declaration and instead issue a new one recognizing Palestinian rights, said a Palestinian official on Wednesday.

The Balfour Declaration confirms the British government's support for establishing a "national home" for Jewish people in Palestine.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said in statements to the Palestinian official radio station, Voice of Palestine, that he made the official request during his meeting with his British counterpart Boris Johnson in London earlier this week.

Malki added "we demanded from the British side to issue a new declaration that would end the 99-year-old vow in which Britain commits itself for the Palestinian people's right to self determination, its support to the establishment of a Palestinian state and recognizing it."

"We discussed the historical responsibility of Britain towards the consequences of the Balfour Declaration and the necessary apology, if it had the courage to undertake its responsibility towards what happened to the Palestinian people as a result of the Declaration," said the minister.

Today marks the 99th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which is the name given to the letter dated Nov. 2, 1917, sent from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary back then, Arthur James Balfour, to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, head of the British Jewish community at the time.

The Balfour Declaration was developed following three years of negotiations between the British Government, the British Jewish community and the Zionist Organization before it was dispatched as a letter to be signed by Arthur Balfour.

The letter was presented to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who approved its content before its publication, and was officially approved by France and Italy in 1918, then publicly adopted by President Wilson in 1919, as well as Japan.

In 1920, it was adopted by the San Remo Conference which was held following the end of World War I and the Declaration was incorporated into the British Mandate. Endit