From Balfour to Al-Aqsa Flood: Neither Forgetting nor Forgiving

109 years after the Balfour Declaration, the Palestinian people continue to confront a colonial project sustained by foreign powers. In the face of genocide, dispossession and attempts to erase our existence, we reaffirm our rights to our land, return, self-determination and liberation.

On 2 November 1917, the British government declared its support for establishing a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. An imperial power presumed to determine the future of a land it did not own, without recognising the political and national rights of the people who lived there. In that declaration, our people were reduced to “non-Jewish communities”: a denial of our identity and our existence as a people with political agency and national rights in our own homeland.

Balfour embodies a colonial responsibility that cannot be confined to history books. Dispossession, expulsion and the fragmentation of Palestine follow the same logic: seize the land and break the will of its people. The Nakba did not end with the expulsions of 1948. It continues through displacement, colonisation and attempts to make Palestinian life impossible.

Britain’s responsibility does not absolve the other governments that have helped sustain this project. The United States and European powers must answer for their decisions. In February 2024, UN experts identified the United States and Germany as the largest arms exporters to Israel and demanded a halt to transfers because of the risk that those weapons would be used in international crimes. In June that year, they reiterated their warnings about the potential complicity of states and companies. No one can claim they did not know.

We demand accountability from every government that has supplied weapons, funding, logistical support or political cover for the extermination of the Palestinian people. This includes those that attempt to substitute statements of concern for their obligations while maintaining relationships that sustain impunity. It also includes Arab governments that place normalisation with Israel above our people’s rights and lives.

From Balfour to the historical juncture opened by 7 October 2023, known as Al-Aqsa Flood, one reality remains beyond the reach of any colonial narrative: Palestine did not begin to exist when its colonisers chose to name it, and its history cannot be reduced to that date. Our people have never accepted their erasure or stopped struggling for freedom.

From the revolts against British rule to popular uprisings, women’s organising, prisoners’ struggles and the daily defence of the land, generations of Palestinians have kept the cause alive. From Nazareth to Ramallah, from Gaza to the refugee camps in exile, we are one people, united by our land, our memory and our right of return.

We have never stopped resisting, and we will not stop until all of Palestine is liberated, from the river to the sea, and all our rights are restored. An end to colonialism, the return of Palestinian refugees, freedom for Palestinian prisoners and self-determination are rights we will never relinquish.

Remembering Balfour demands action: organising solidarity, strengthening the boycott, demanding an effective military embargo, and pursuing justice and reparations. No government has the right to negotiate our erasure or decide which part of our homeland or our rights we must surrender.

Neither forgetting nor forgiving. For liberation, return and a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.