Palestinians Warn Liz Truss against Following Trump, Moving UK Embassy to al-Quds

Some Palestinians described the move as “a new Balfour Declaration” and said it proves Britain’s bias in favor of the Israeli regime.

The Balfour Declaration came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community. It was published on November 2, 1917.

The declaration was made during World War I (1914-1918) and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

It is widely seen as the precursor to the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, when Zionist armed paramilitary groups, who were trained and created to fight side by side with the British in World War II, forcibly expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. 

An unnamed Palestinian Authority official said the Ramallah-based and Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over West Bank areas has not received an official statement from the British government regarding the relocation of the embassy.

The official warned that such “dangerous” moves would have a negative impact on the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The official pointed out that the reports about relocating the British embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds emerged shortly after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Truss met in New York, where they are attending the 77th United Nations General Assembly session.