The Palestinian ambassador to the UK said on Tuesday that the UK would not apologize for the Balfour Declaration, which contributed to the establishment of an Israeli state, as the 100th commemoration of the signing of the document is marked this year.What, exactly, would they demand in a lawsuit?
Palestinian Ambassador Manuel Hassassian conveyed the news to Voice of Palestine radio that the UK government has officially refused an apology for the 1917 document which supported establishing a Jewish state on what would become British Mandate Palestine.
Hassassian also confirmed that the UK would hold celebrations, along with the Israeli government, during the centennial anniversary of the document on Nov. 2, despite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging the UK not to celebrate the document during the recent Arab Summit in Jordan and encouraging the government to officially apologize to Palestinians instead.
Palestinian leaders have continued to issue threats of suing the UK government over the declaration, with Hassassian reportedly saying that there were a “number of attorneys in the UK” who have already begun taking steps to sue the government.
“If the UK backs down, apologizes to the Palestinian people and recognizes the state of Palestine, the issue of suing the UK will be cancelled,” official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Hassassian as saying.
An apology?
Reparations?
What?
The threat of a lawsuit was first brought up by Mahmoud Abbas in a statement last July. At the time, he said:
With this anniversary, the painful solutions, and the passage of about a hundred years on this historic massacre of our land and the capabilities of our people, and with the continuation of this disaster without a solution, we ask the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States to support our preparation to file a lawsuit against the British government which issued the Balfour Declaration, and its implementation of the Mandate then, causing the plight of the Palestinian people, and dispersion, and depriving them of living in their homeland and to establish an independent state like the rest of the peoples of the region.The specifics are...unclear.
Maybe he should sue the Arab leaders, including Palestinian Arab leaders, who refused to accept the UN resolution that would have given them a state in 1947!
Please, please sue the British government, Abbas. Sue them to demand an apology. Sue them to demand money. Sue them as publicly and noisily as possible. If you cant find a legal excuse to sue, please continue to threaten a lawsuit anyway.
It is a sure way to lose support for your cause in the West, as people are slowly realizing that the Palestinian Authority is more interested in stunts than peace. The Arab world is already there, and your actions are the surest way to ensure that your people will be whining about their terrible lives in their villas in Ramallah for the next century.
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