“It has been 103 years since the British government adopted a supremely arrogant, racist and colonialist promise to give
away Palestine and willfully discard the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The catastrophic consequences of
the Balfour Declaration have been our living reality since then.
Adding insult to injury, the Trump administration revived the objectionable mindset of the Balfour Declaration by
upending US policy and international law in relation to Palestine. The so-called Trump plan borrowed this worldview and
attempted to impose it on the Palestinian people.
Then and now, all such exclusionary policies aiming to deprive the Palestinian people of their fundamental right to have
agency over their lives and destiny are egregious and entirely unacceptable. Just like the illegitimate Balfour
declaration, the Trump “plan” is informed by an absolutist and literalist ideology that excuses the inexcusable,
allowing for Israeli exceptionalism to perpetuate at the expense of Palestinian lives and rights.
Regrettably, successive British governments have failed to take responsibility for this illegitimate and unprecedented
act of wholesome injustice. It can still begin correcting this historic wrong by recognizing Palestine.
In this land, absolutist ideologies, including those backed by political and military aggression, have always failed.
They will fail again in normalizing Israel’s inorganic and imposed occupation and institutional racism. Only a
transparent and accountable political process that heals and rights these wrongs can undo the Balfour and Trump
legacies.
Freedom and self-determination are absolute rights that are non-negotiable. We will not accept to be the exception to
this universal fact. The Palestinian people will not surrender to a racist ideology that attempts to eradicate our
history, culture, and narrative. Palestine lives and it will be vindicated with the dedicated pursuit of justice by our
people and justice advocates worldwide.”