The Palestinian National Council (PNC) called on the countries of the world and their parliaments that did not recognize the State of Palestine to recognize the State of Palestine, in accordance with the related resolutions of international legitimacy, and to achieve justice to the Palestinian people, who continue to pay a high price of blood and displacement, as a result of Balfour Declaration and its implementation and consequences at the expense of the Palestinian legitimate land and rights.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the 102nd anniversary of Balfour Declaration, PNC affirmed that this colonial promise is considered a crime under the regulations and rules of international law, whereas it led to the uprooting and displacement of more than half of the Palestinian population in the process of ethnic cleansing, destruction and extermination of more than 531 Palestinian villages and towns, in addition to hundreds of bloody massacres against our people.

It is time to put an end to the suffering of our people, PNC announced, the Palestinian people still live under a criminal occupation, due to the international community failure to hold the Israeli occupation accountable, and compel Israeli to implement the international decisions, the failure which led to the continuation of this crime which does not fall into obsolescence, and associated with aggression, killing, arrest and settlement. This crime requires accountability and prosecution of those who caused this disaster on our people.

PNC stressed the responsibility of the international community and its institutions and states to work to end the Israeli occupation, and enable the Palestinian people to self-determination, home return and the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. It is no longer enough to issue loose statements that will not end the occupation that challenges the international community and its decisions, that did not prevent the continuation of daily crimes against our people, their land and sanctities by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers.

PNC called on the British House of Commons and the House of Lords to pressure the British government to correct its grave mistake, admit its international legal responsibility, and commit to apply the principle of repairing the damage it has done to our rights, including apologizing and compensating Palestinian people, and recognizing the State of Palestine on the borders of 4th of June 1967.

PNC stressed that Palestinian people and their leaders are steadfastly confronting all suspicious deals and plans, including the so-called (deal of the century), that Palestinians will not allow the repetition of the Balfour Declaration, which was the ground of all the crimes that have befallen on the Palestinians. PNC is calling for a speedy end to the hateful division and responding to initiatives and calls launched by the leadership of the Palestinian people to restore national unity within The Palestinian Liberation Organization PLO, the sole and legitimate representative of our people.

The Balfour Declaration is a statement issued by British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour on 2nd of November 1917 in the form of a letter to Lionel Rothschild, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement in Britain at that time, stating that the British Government would do its utmost to establish A Jewish homeland in Palestine.

3 November, 2019