Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, saying their refusal to accept the Balfour Declaration lay at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Speaking at a Knesset ceremony marking the centennial of the Balfour Declaration, Netanyahu attacks the Palestinians for criticizing the document, which expressed the United Kingdom’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Knesset during a special plenum session marking the centennial of the Balfour Declaration, on November 7, 2017.(Miriam Alster/Flash90)
“When the leaders of the Palestinian leadership call the Balfour Declaration a war crime [and] call on the British government to apologize for it, they are not going forwards, they are going backwards,” says Netanyahu. “This is the root of the conflict, the 100-year long refusal to recognize Zionism and the State of Israel in any borders.”
Ahead of the anniversary, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week wrote an op-ed lamenting the document, saying it set in motion a process that led to a century of Palestinian suffering and should not be a cause of celebration. Other senior PA officials have called on Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration.
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Tuesday, November 7, 2017
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