November 2 marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration which established a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine in exchange for Zionist influence bringing the US into WW1 supporting Britain.
The Declaration insisted that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice (Palestinian) civil and religious rights’ but omitted to include their political rights which is not surprising given that Balfour revealed his pro-Zionist bias in a letter to Lord Curzon, ‘Zionism is of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices [sic] of 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land’.
It has only been half fulfilled given that the minority Jews now have a state while the majority Palestinians are totally subservient to their gun-backed rule.
Messrs Turnbull, Shorten plus a huge contingent of senior politicians, military, media and relatives and friends of the Australian Light Horse Brigade made the pilgrimage to Beersheba and although Shorten initially visited the West Bank, the Palestinians were completely extirpated.
However, Netanyahu’s Beersheba centenary address stated, ‘Exactly 100 years ago, brave ANZAC soldiers liberated Beer Sheba for the sons and daughters of Abraham and opened the gateway for the Jewish people to reenter the stage of history’, but both Jews and Muslims trace their origins to Abraham, Jews through Isaac and Muslims through Ishmael, so why did he limit the ANZAC contribution only to Jews and why were our politicians complicit in this gross distortion of history?
Gareth Smith, Palestine Liberation Centre, Byron Bay
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