From The Times of London Centenary anniversary of the Mandate on Palestine (thanks to Michael for sharing this). The British empire was complicit with the Zionists in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in these 100 years (and killing over 100,000 natives and injuring nearly a million) and that is precisely why we have 7.5 million displaced or refugee Palestinians and the rest squeezed into 8% of their historic lands and living under racist apartheid policies. The prosperity of the Israeli economy like that of the US or Australia is baptized by the blood of the native Palestinians. Lest we forget, the latest "Israeli" nationality law calls the whole land the land of the Jews and only Jews have a right to "self-determination" in this land (Palestine). Britain owes us an apology and restitution. We have a right to return to our homes and lands and a right to end racist apartheid laws.
"The terms of the Palestine Mandate, published today, have notoriously been pulled about a great deal, but in final form they lay down conditions that are necessary for the liberty and progress of the country and for the satisfaction of Mr Balfour’s promise that Palestine should be a national home for the Jews. The phrase “national home” has never seemed to us a happy one; for, whereas some — ourselves among them — have interpreted it as meaning that the Palestinian nation, while being an amalgam of different races and creeds, should be one that the Jew will some day be able to call his own, others have interpreted the promise much more narrowly. The Mandate repeats the phrase without defining it; but on the whole, and despite the criticisms of the Jewish Chronicle, it seems to us to incline to the wider and more generous view. It speaks in the preamble of the “historical connexion” of Jewry with Palestine, and of “reconstructing” a national home for Jews there; later it recognizes the Zionist Organization, “so long as its organization and constitution are appropriate”, as a body that should cooperate with the Government on all matters affecting Jewish interests in the country. The British Government will depend on the Organization to interpret our message and discipline enthusiasm into practical channels. We want Palestine to become a nation, because only so will it be able to stand alone, and without the help of the Jews there can be no nation there. To the Arabs, too, the Jew brings the gifts of money and brains such as served them in the days of their political greatness. There are ample provisions in the Mandate for the protection of all existing rights and for absolute equality between races and creeds, and the Arab who agrees to be a Palestinian first and an Arab second will have full share in the prosperity of the country and whatever political distinction it may achieve. He will be unwise if he allows himself to be used by anti-Semites in this or any other country. There is no way to success except in a wise policy of Jewish immigration, which by union with the Arabs will form a strong Palestinian nationality, and it is one of the defects of the Mandate that this ambition of a future Commonwealth in Palestine is not expressly avowed."
Britain was certainly manipulated on the Balfour Declaration
ReplyDeleteThat document was a quid pro quo for getting the US into WW One to help Britain defeat Germany
Mendacity and Manipulation for over 100 years
My Scottish ancestors, the Grahams, were unjustly exiled to Ireland by King James in 1603. Do I have an inalienable right to take back my clan land on the Scottish border ?
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