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 Israeli 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 symbolises a brazen attack on all human rights principles and international humanitarian law standards.
Hamas has condemned the latest remarks by ex-British Prime Minister Liz Truss that she is a ‘huge Zionist’ and a ‘huge supporter of Israel’ as being in line with the notorious 1917 Balfour Declaration.
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.
The Jewish population of Palestine at the time of the Balfour Declaration, according to reports, varied from 60 to 80 thousand within the existing indigenous Palestinian population of 700,000.
Palestinian lawyers have filed a complaint to sue the British government for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, that led to the creation of Israel.
As the Balfour Declaration clearly asserted, the British Empire sought to ‘facilitate’ the growth of Jewish people in the land of Palestine.
‘In Palestine, we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country…’ because Zionism, ‘be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far more profound import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land,’ Balfour was quoted at the time.
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 concluded that all the Israeli-occupied territories will be liberated one day.
- The Palestinian Authority (PA) says the projections coming out of the Israeli regime’s earlier general elections only promise a sizeable swing to the right, therefore boding ill for Palestinians.
‘The advance of far-right religious parties in Israeli elections … is testimony to the rise of extremism and racism in Israeli society and from which our people have suffered for years,’ the occupied West Bank-headquartered PA’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said on Wednesday.
‘We had no illusions that Israeli elections would produce a partner for peace,’ he added.
The remarks came after exit polls gave former controversy-magnate Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu 61 to 62 seats in the Knesset, the regime’s parliament, which packs 120 seats.
Netanyahu’s record long drawn-out run as the regime’s prime minister, which lasted from 2009 to 2021, was marked with sheer expansion of Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement activities, which spelled an end to ‘peace’ talks with the Palestinians.
The twilight years of his career were mired in a massive corruption scandal, which eventually had him indicted on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges.
Netanyahu denies the charges, but the scandal delivered a telling blow to his staying power, and eventually saw him being ousted when the current acting PM Yair Lapid and his coalition partner Naftali Bennett cobbled together an alliance with others.
‘We (Palestinians) already experienced Netanyahu’s policy, his policy is always the same, it will never change, we know its impact on the Palestinian people. ‘Netanyahu and his party will benefit from all of that, but the Palestinian people will not, they will not benefit whether economically or socially or in terms of peace and security stability,’ Palestinian resident of al-Khalil (Hebron), Hussam Dofash, said.
‘As a Palestinian, this does not mean anything to me, we tried Netanyahu’s policy before as well as Yair Lapid. Both are competing in conducting crimes against Palestinians.
‘Their election campaigns are always launched at the expense of the Palestinian blood.
‘They do not benefit us, on the contrary, they hurt us. Our Palestinian blood is a measure of their success,’ said Abdullah Razem, another Palestinian.
The Hamas resistance movement says Israel is an occupying regime in its entirety, and that it cannot legitimise its occupation of Palestine by staging elections.
The polls, meanwhile, gave Lapid’s camp 54 to 55 seats, making it the second-largest party in the parliament.
Firebrand illegal settler Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Religious Zionism list were poised to be the third-largest party in the parliament after surging in from the political margins.
- Russia has warned that grain shipments via the Black Sea will be ‘risky’ for Ukraine now that Moscow is no longer a participant to a UN-brokered deal to facilitate deliveries.
Back in July, Moscow and Kiev reached an agreement, mediated by the UN and Turkey, to resume grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, aiming to put an end to a stand-off that has exposed millions to the risk of starvation.
The deal allowed Ukraine to resume grain shipments after Russia had imposed a blockade on Ukraine’s southern ports following the ‘special military operation’ that began on February 24.
Last weekend, the Kremlin alleged that Ukraine, helped by the British navy ‘specialists’, launched an attack near Sevastopol using 16 drones in the early hours of Saturday, prompting Russia’s Defence Ministry to announce that Moscow ‘suspends participation in the implementation of agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports’.
The Ukrainian side also said negotiations with the Russians were ‘a waste of time’ Kiev has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind that attack.
On Monday, Moscow warned that after pulling out of the grain deal, it was no longer safe for Kiev to send abroad its grain shipments via the Black Sea.
‘In conditions when Russia is talking about the impossibility of guaranteeing the safety of shipping in these areas, such a deal is hardly feasible, and it takes on a different character – much more risky, dangerous and unguaranteed,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference. Once again, he blamed Ukraine for disrupting the deal.
Ukraine, which is a major exporter of corn, barley, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil, used to export most of its goods through its main ports on the Black and Azov seas, but since the Russian operation began, it has been forced to export by train or via its small Danube River ports.
The war has significantly reduced Ukraine’s grain exports, endangering the world food supply by preventing the country from shipping its agricultural products. The failed grain deal was an attempt to avert an unfolding global food crisis, particularly in parts of Africa.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Peskov said Russia’s contacts with Turkey and the UN were ongoing, without explaining why shipments without Russia’s involvement would be risky. Twelve ships transporting grain left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite Russia’s announcement.
Moscow’s announcement on pulling out of the grain export deal has already sparked an outcry from Ukraine, the US-led NATO, the European Union and the United States. US President Joe Biden on Saturday slammed Russia’s move as ‘purely outrageous’, saying that it would increase starvation.
Prior to the move, Russia had complained for weeks that too little of the grain was going to the poorest countries.
Peskov also said Russia would continue to support African countries but that the details were complex and were still being worked out. ‘So far we can only guarantee the readiness of the Russian side to compensate for the falling volumes at its own expense,’ he said.
The Russian military said its ships had been targeted in a drone attack in the bay of Sevastopol.
Separately on Monday, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar warned that the suspension would not benefit any parties involved and would lead to a further build-up at ports. He said he would hold a phone call later on Monday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu and that he was also continuing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov.
Speaking with them, we will make efforts to ensure the continuation of this initiative, a statement by Akar’s ministry quoted him as saying in a video conference with Turkish military chiefs. ‘In such a situation the passage of ships will be delayed and the build-up at ports will intensify. Those in need are already urgently waiting for the grains. In this situation the distress will increase further.’
Unprecedented waves of sanctions by the US and its European allies against Russia over the war in Ukraine have sent the price of grain, cooking oil, fertiliser and energy skyrocketing, hurting global growth.
