{Originally posted to the author’s website, Elder of Ziyon}
TOI reports:
The Palestinian Authority is preparing a lawsuit against the British government over the issuing of the 1917 Balfour Declaration that paved the way for the creation of the State of Israel.
The PA’s Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told Arab League leaders gathered in Mauritania Monday that London is responsible for all “Israeli crimes” committed since the end of the British mandate in 1948.
Signed by British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour in 1917, the declaration was seen as giving the Zionist movement official recognition and backing on the part of a major power, on the eve of the British conquest of the then-Ottoman territory of Palestine.
The decision, al-Malki said, “gave people who don’t belong there something that wasn’t theirs.”
Interestingly, Hamas had called for Great Britain to apologize for Balfour back in 2010.
Similarly, the “Palestine Return Center” started a petition to the UK Parliament to apologize for Balfour and compensate all Arabs of Palestinian descent. It compared the “nakba” with the Holocaust. It received 1,278 signatures in six months, far short of the 10,000 required for the UK Parliament to respond and the 100,000 required for Parliament to debate the issue.
This is Abbas’ latest gimmick. He wants to make it appear to his people as if he is actually doing something but everything he does is symbolic.
For an honor/shame society, where appearances are more important than facts, this can play well. But the rest of the world is more and more impatient with Abbas’ adamant refusal to do anything positive for the peace process or for his people.
Of course, two can play at this game.
I started an online petition demanding that the PLO and PA apologize for over a century of terror attacks aimed at Jews.
The Palestinian Authority, as the self-appointed leader of the Palestinian Arab people, must assume responsibility for the historic crimes done against Jews in the region known as Palestine in the 1800s and 1900s.
These include attacks in Rishon LeTzion in the 1880s, the Nebi Musa riots in 1920, the Jaffa and Jerusalem attacks in 1921, the massacres of 1929, the violent riots between 1936-39, the many attacks in 1947 and 1948, as well as the terror attacks that have occurred nearly continuously since 1948 including the Munich massacre that was financed by Mahmoud Abbas and the wave of suicide bombings in the 21st century. Constant antisemitic incitement from Palestinian leaders and official media since the 1920s must be apologized for as well.
Only by the Palestinians accepting responsibility for its part of the conflict can the conflict be solved.
Sign it and show that both sides can do useless gimmicks as PR stunts.