By Salah Tmeizi
HEBRON, October 30, 2017 (WAFA) – A group of 60 British activists walked for 147 days and crossed 3300 kilometers to be in Palestine as Palestinians mark the 100 year anniversary for the ill-famed Balfour Declaration, which promised Palestine as home to Europe’s Jews, the group’s guide, Husam Jubran, said on Monday.
He said the group walked from the United Kingdom to France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and then Turkey before flying to Jordan to cross its borders into the occupied Palestinian territory.
The purpose of the visit is to apologize to the Palestinian people for the November 2, 1917 Balfour declaration that set the stage for Palestinian dispersion and displacement.
“The group has expressed regret and sorrow for the Palestinian people who had to suffer after they were forced out of their homes in a move supported by the British government,” said Jubran.
After arriving in the West Bank on a four-day visit, the group went to Hebron, where thousands of Palestinians are forced to live a very difficult life in a section of the city where several hundred extremist Jewish settlers live.
In order to allow the Jewish settlers freedom of movement and access in the part of Hebron classified in Palestinian-Israeli agreements as H2, the Israeli army heavily restricts Palestinian movement and access by placing dozens of metal gates and barriers around Palestinian home in H2, not to mention the daily humiliating body searches and harassment at the checkpoints around those areas.
Chris, one of the British participants, said that they were witnesses to the suffering of the Palestinian people. “We never imagined that it would be like this,” he said after visiting Hebron’s H2 area.
Julia Katrina, another member of the group, said the British government should recognize the Palestinian state is order to make up for the Balfour declaration.
While in Hebron, the group members were harassed by the Israeli settlers and army, which was a living proof to them of the difficulty of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation.
M.K.
