Syria: Britain’s 1917 Balfour Declaration to Blame for Zionist Crimes in Palestine

DAMASCUS (KI) – Syria’s top legislative body says the 1917 Balfour Declaration, through which Britain executed its plan of establishing a ‘Jewish national home’ in Palestine, is primarily responsible for war crimes and unrelenting aggression by the Zionist regime against Palestinians.

“What is currently taking place in Palestine is the upshot of the entitlement then-UK Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour gave to the global Zionist movement on November 2, 1917,” said a statement by the People’s Assembly of Syria on Wednesday.
The statement coincided with the 115th anniversary of the infamous treaty, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
The parliament rejected the declaration as a “flagrant violation of the most basic principles of the international law”, reaffirming that the Syrian government and the Syrian nation will continue to support Palestinians until their legitimate rights are fully restored.
It termed the declaration “null and void” and in clear contravention of the most fundamental standards of international law, added that it symbolizes a brazen attack on all human rights principles and international humanitarian law standards.
The Balfour Declaration came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community. It was published on November 2, 1917.
The declaration was made during World War I (1914-1918) and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
It is widely seen as the precursor to the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, when Zionist armed paramilitary groups, who were trained and created to fight side by side with the British in World War II, forcibly expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland.
As the Balfour Declaration clearly asserted, the British Empire sought to “facilitate” the growth of Jewish people in the land of Palestine.
The Syrian legislature highlighted that “the Palestinian cause has always been the main and central issue in Syria”.
“That explains for the most brutal terrorist attacks and unjust economic sanctions that certain Western countries, above all the United States, have subjected Syria to.”
The statement noted that all the Israeli-occupied territories will be liberated one day.