|
Trending Topics
|
Celebrating One Hundred Years of the Balfour Declaration
(Conservative Home-UK) John Howell MP - The Balfour Declaration was instrumental in the creation of the State of Israel, serving, in effect, as a legal birth certificate. It was ratified by all 51 countries of the League of Nations when the Mandate for Palestine was approved in July 1922. When it was issued in 1917, the infrastructure of a Jewish state was already being established, with the widespread foundation of kibbutzim and moshavim. The affirmation of the British Government served to validate this process, rather than initiate it. Israel has lived up to the highest ambitions of the Balfour Declaration, as a democratic, prosperous and self-reliant state. The UK must encourage the Palestinians to respond to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's call for the immediate resumption of peace talks which is the only way to achieve a lasting two-state solution. The writer is Vice-Chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel.