BICOM

The Israeli Parliament held a commemoration ceremony and conference to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration.

Speaking at the event, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised calls by senior Palestinian leaders for Britain to apologise for the Balfour Declaration, calling it indicative of the “100-year refusal to recognise Zionism, to recognise the Jewish national home in the land of Israel, to recognize the State of Israel within any borders”. Netanyahu also looked to the future, describing Israel’s efforts “to achieve peace with other Arab countries who stand with us in the face of radical Islam, and I can only hope that the Palestinians finally adopt this approach and turn to peace”.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein opened the conference saying: “We know that without that Declaration, we would not be standing here today, in the Knesset building in an independent state.”

UK Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey read a message from UK Prime Minister Theresa May that said: “Britain is proud of its part in the pioneering work for the establishment of the State of Israel. Britain is proud of the State of Israel, for what it stands for as an open and democratic country in the Middle East.”

The co-chairs of the Israel-Britain Knesset Friendship Committee spoke of their family links to the UK: Zionist Union’s Hilik Bar mentioned his family connection to Liverpool and Yoav Kish of Likud told the conference his grandfather was a Brigadier-General in the British army, serving as Field Marshal Montgomery’s chief engineer at El-Alamein, where he was killed in 1944. Leading academics Simon Schama, Martin Kramer and Efraim Karsh also spoke at the conference.

Before the conference a commemorative stamp celebrating the centenary was unveiled in a ceremony at Edelstein’s office which was attended by the British Ambassador, Lord Rothschild,  Joan Ryan MP and Opposition leader Isaac Herzog MK.

A small crowd of around 40 Israeli-Arab citizens handed a letter to the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, calling for the British government to apologise to the Palestinian people “for the crime that it carried out” and to recognize “the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people”.