Columnist in official PA daily calls for ‘ending colonial Zionist project’
As anniversary of historic Balfour Declaration neared, PA President Mahmoud Abbas also ordered Palestinian flags flown at half-mast in protest of ‘injustice’

A columnist in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida called for an end to the Israeli state in advance of the 104th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on Tuesday.
“Today, after 104 years, the world is still unable to correct this historical error and this gross injustice by putting an end to this colonial Zionist project, which constitutes the largest fraud and theft operation in history,” journalist Basim Barhoum, who writes a regular column for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote in a column last week.
The article was spotlighted by the nonprofit Palestinian Media Watch, which tracks incitement in official Palestinian Authority media.
On November 2, 1917, the United Kingdom issued the Balfour Declaration — named for presiding foreign minister Arthur Balfour — supporting Jewish self-determination in Mandatory 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 endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object,” Balfour wrote on behalf of the British government.

Palestinians continue to view the move as a betrayal by the British government and regularly demand formal apologies. The UK has not supplied one.
In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 2016, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said: “We ask Great Britain… to draw the necessary lessons and to bear its historic, legal, political, material and moral responsibility for the consequences of this declaration, including an apology to the Palestinian people for the catastrophes, misery and injustice this declaration created.”
Abbas issued a decree on Sunday ordering all Palestinian public institutions around the world — such as schools, embassies, and courts — to fly the Palestinian flag at half-mast on Tuesday.
“The presidential decree stated that the flag should be lowered at all state institutions, embassies and representations, on the second day of November of each year, in condemnation of the ‘Balfour Declaration,’ and the resulting displacement of our Palestinian people and the robbery of their legitimate rights,” the official PA WAFA news agency reported.
Some Israelis — including current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, which most Palestinians see as the key goal of their national movement.