Masjid affirms right of Palestinians to resist illegal occupation of their land
NOVEMBER 2 marked 100 years since the signing of the so-called “Balfour Declaration” by the then British foreign secretary, Lord Arthur James Balfour.
Through a declaration formulated and signed by Lord Balfour, Britain became the imperial sponsor of a Zionist state – euphemistically called a “Jewish national home” – that would be established in Palestine by expelling its indigenous people en masse.
The Balfour Declaration therefore marks the creation of the Zionist state of Israel and the onset of the illegal grabbing, colonisation and occupation of Palestinian ancestral lands.
It is lamentable that this immoral declaration of the Zionist State of Israel was endorsed by the United Nations in 1948.
However, in 1977 the UN passed a resolution inaugurating an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (November 29) in recognition of the violence, injustice and gross human rights violations that were being perpetrated in Palestine.
In commemorating this day annually, the Claremont Main Road Masjid affirms the right of Palestinians to resist the illegal occupation of their land by the Zionist State of Israel.
British author and activist David Cronin, in his recent book, Balfour’s Shadow: A Century of British Support for Zionism and Israel (Pluto, 2017), argues that the architect of the Balfour Declaration, Lord Balfour was a British white supremacist and racist who was a strong supporter of Cecil John Rhodes.
While serving as prime minister from 1902 to 1905, Balfour insisted that “Europeans” must enjoy greater privileges than “Black natives” in South Africa and that black people were “less intellectually and morally capable” than whites.
There is little doubt that racism was at the core of the Balfour Declaration and, not surprisingly, lies at the heart of the policies of the apartheid Zionist State of Israel.
As we commemorate International Day of Solidarity with Palestinians on Wednesday, we call for a sober reflection on the violence and racism against Palestinians that was inaugurated 100 years ago with the signing of the Balfour Declaration.
The Zionist State of Israel has for the past century, with the support of imperial powers in the West, continued with impunity its systematic campaigns of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
This has involved land grabs, settler expansions, home demolitions, destruction of essential infrastructure, illegal imprisonment and targeted killings of Palestinians. Over 1.7 million displaced Palestinians living in Gaza, the largest open-air prison in the world, and other occupied territories are subject to the daily brutalisation of occupation under the Zionist State of Israel.
With the complicity of allies in the region, access to water, food, and basic health services to Gaza and other occupied territories is easily and regularly blockaded.
Solidarity with the people of Palestine means not only do we condemn the injustice and gross human rights violations being perpetrated against the Palestinians, but we also call for the delegitimisation of the Zionist ideology used to justify the destructive actions of the State of Israel.
International solidarity with the Palestinians demands no less than the complete isolation of the Zionist State of Israel, brought into being by the imperial pen of Lord Balfour.
We call on all citizens of the world to support the global campaign to isolate Israel economically, politically, and culturally to bring an end to the decades of state terror, violence and injustice inflicted on the Palestinians.
We call on the international community to enact its own resolutions in pursuit of justice for Palestinians by ending the impunity with which the Zionist State of Israel continues its expansionist programmes and perpetrates gross violations of human rights against the Palestinians.