Ammon News -

By Rahaf Noghai- It’s 105 years since the “Balfour Declaration” was issued, 67 words from a British foreign secretary empower a 3000-year-old nation to return to their homeland.

2, November 1917, in the thick of World War 1, as the British prepared for victory over the Ottoman Empire and the imminent quest of much of the Middle East foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur James Balfour, wrote an important letter to one of the Britain’s most illustrious Jewish Citizens Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild.

In a letter, he expressed the government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors 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.”

This short letter would come to be known as the “Balfour Declaration”.

These 67 words were a historic promise given to the early Zionist movement, by the British government for” the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people “.

In fact, in 1917 only 8% of the population of Palestine was Jewish.

For much of the 1920s and 30s, the British facilitated Jewish immigration to Palestine automatically granting each newly-arrived Jewish immigrant with a Palestinian passport.

And as the demographics changed, resentment grew between the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine towards their occupiers the British.

When Britain decided to leave in May of 14 1948, the Zionist Paramilitary army was ready with a plan to colonies all of historic Palestine.

More than 700,000 local Palestinians were kicked out their homes, and 15,000 Palestinians were killed that year in several massacres.

Zionists declare their own state on May 14, 1948, and began the process of wiping the word “Palestine” off the map and deleting it from the historic record.

Today, Wednesday, 2nd November, coincides with the painful anniversary of this ominous promise, specifically in the year 1948, “Al-Nakba or the catastrophe”, during which Zionist gangs attacked Palestinians cities and villages.

The Palestinian people are still living the tragedy of the Israeli occupation due to the persecution, repression, killing, arrests and demolition of homes and properties.
In addition, the Palestinian people still face difficulties in moving between the cities of Palestine due to the severe measures taken by the occupation police at the checkpoints.