Palestinian lawyers on Friday filed suit with a Nablus court against the British government over the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which spelled out the United Kingdom's support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people.
Signed by then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, the declaration is considered the historic precursor to Israel's inception in 1948.
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According to French news agency AFP, lawyers representing the Federation of Independent and Democratic Trade Union, International Commission to Support Palestinian People's Rights, and the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate file a lawsuit in Nablus citing that "the suffering of the Palestinians" stemmed from the Balfour Declaration.
"The British Mandate is at the root of the suffering of the Palestinian people and has paved the way for the violation of their rights and the plunder of their land," said Munib al-Masri, head of the Federation of Independent and Democratic Trade Unions.
The Palestinians have repeatedly condemned the declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise," claiming Britain was giving away land it did not own. The PA has tried to get Britain to renege on the historic document in the past but to no avail.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has, on more than one occasion, castigated London over the Balfour Declaration, saying the UK "signed away the Palestinians' homeland and initiated decades of persecution."
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