Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
27 January
PALESTINIANS UNDERSTOOD ZIONISM FROM THE BEGINNING
On this day in 1919, the First Palestinian National Congress opened in Jerusalem in response to European Jewish settlers moving into Palestine. Delegates from Muslim-Christian societies across Palestine met. Congress sent a memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference rejecting the Balfour Declaration, declaring void all foreign treaties referring to the area, and demanding inclusion of Palestine as "an integral part of...the independent Arab Government of Syria within an Arab Union, free of any foreign influence..."
فهم الفلسطينيون الصهيونية منذ البداية
27 يناير
في هذا اليوم من العام 1919م، عقد أول مؤتمر قومي فلسطيني في القدس كاستجابة لدخول المستوطنين اليهود الأوروبيين إلى فلسطين. التقى في هذا المؤتمر ممثلون للجمعيات المسلمة والمسيحية من كل أنحاء فلسطين. بعث المؤتمر بمذكرة إلى مؤتمر باريس للسلام تعبر عن رفض وعد بلفور، وتعلن بطلان جميع الاتفاقيات الخارجية المتعلقة بالمنطقة، وتطالب بضم فلسطين "كجزء لا يتجزأ من الدولة العربية السورية المستقلة ضمن الاتحاد العربي متحررة من أي تأثير أجنبي.."
The British were widely known as wily, untrustworthy and deceptive - perfidious Albion. Balfour's cynicism was clear. He wrote to Lloyd George in 1919 that there would be no democratic rights for Palestinians but deceeption was required: "The weak point of our position is of course that in the case of Palestine we deliberately and rightly decline to accept the principle of self-determination."
Lest anyone believed the piece in the tail of the Balfour Declaration concerning British assurances that the rights of the native people would be protected, Balfour was emphatic with Lord Curzon that
"in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country …. The Four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land."
52-minute video: How Britain Started The Israel-Palestine Conflict - Promises And Betrayals