Doha (Qatar): In an emotional and touching letter addressed to Prime Minister Theresa May who said the Britain is proud of Balfour Declaration, an 11-year-old Palestinian student reminded her of the sufferings the Palestinians underwent after the creation of Israel.
"I have recently read about your British and Israel celebration of the one hundred years of the Balfour Declaration for Israel to occupy Palestine (which is not actually Balfour’s property). After that, an ocean of sadness and death flooded Palestine.
"To be completely honest, I do not understand why you would celebrate that day with pride. Are you proud of causing the Palestinians to be homeless? Are you proud of stealing peace from the Palestinians’ hearts, souls and minds without having the right to do that?" Hala Nasrallah, a student of Sherborne Qatar School wrote in her letter.
"I live in Qatar, and I do have a lot of British friends, and I am in a British school. I am only eleven years old, but diving into the future, I realise that when my friends and I have graduated, they would all move back to their homeland. However, I would have no home to return to", she said.
"Although I have never set foot in Palestine due to Israel grabbing it away, my grandfather told me a lot of stories about what life in Palestine was like back then. He talked about the village that he used to live in; a village named Al-Burayj.
"It was a very pleasant village, but now it is a store full of weapons. It is not only about my grandfather and my village. It is also about the rest of the Palestinians that were kicked out of their own villages, and now many of them live in wretched, gloomy and miserable camps. I’m certain you know the agony that happens in Palestinian camps", she said.
"In fact, I feel that it is heavily confusing that you have refused to apologise, as even apologising is not enough. Palestine will not return to how it used to be by just doing that, because bringing it back would need a lot of effort from the international community.
"Above all, you have placed a new obstacle in the road of peace because you are planning to celebrate a centenary that led to injustice for many people", she wrote.
British Prime Minister Theresa May had last week said that Britain was 'proud' of the role it played in helping to create Israel during a meeting with Netanyahu but warned that Israeli settlements were a 'barrier' to peace.
"I obviously, as we commemorate the Balfour Declaration, recognize the sensitivities that this raises. We, obviously, want to see a resolution of the issue for the Israelis and Palestinians. And we remain committed to a two-state solution."
Jeremy Corbyn said Britain should mark the Balfour Centenary by unilaterally recognizing Palestine.
Meanwhile, Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Monday took to the streets in London to protest against the 100-year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which resulted in the creation of Israel.
The demonstrators also called on the British government to apologize for the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 document that pledged to set up a Jewish "national home" in what was then Palestine, according to media reports.
In 1917, the then Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour wrote a letter to senior Jewish community figure Lord Rothschild stating that the official government position was to create a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, which was expected to come under British control after the end of World War One.
While the 100th anniversary of the declaration has been celebrated by Israel and many British Jews, Palestinians view this a scrap of paper, which is a catastrophe that foresaw expansion of Jewish migration to Palestine.
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