The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement of Hamas slammed on Wednesday British Prime Minister’s recent remarks about calling herself a “huge Zionist”, saying the comments are in line with the UK’s 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Speaking at Sunday evening’s Conservative Friends of Israel event in Birmingham, Liz Truss told the audience that she is a “huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel” and pledged that she would “take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength”.
Addressing the reception, Truss echoed her previous comments on barring the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, along with her support for the controversial Westminster Holocaust Memorial project.
She added, “In this world – where we are facing threats from authoritarian regimes who don’t believe in freedom and democracy – two free democracies, the UK and Israel, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will be even closer in the future.”
In response to her Sunday’ remarks, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, “Her statements about supporting Zionism mean she is standing at the Zionist regime’s side and supporting aggression against the Palestinian nation.”
He added that such remarks are in line with British crimes, which began more than 100 years ago with the Balfour Declaration, against the Palestinian cause which is fighting off the Israeli occupation.
The Hamas official said the UK premier was one of those who cover up the killing of innocent children, adding, “This is shameful for humanity.”
The Balfour Declaration came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community. It was published on November 2, 1917.
The declaration was made during World War I (1914-1918) and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
It is widely seen as the precursor to the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, when Zionist armed paramilitary groups, who were trained and created to fight side by side with the British in World War II, forcibly expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland.
The Prime Minister’s remarks come after a few days of her announcement that she is weighing the relocation of Britain’s Israel embassy in Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem – a decision that would follow former US President Donald Trump’s provocative move.
Truss told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid of the move during a meeting at the United Nations summit in New York City on September 21.
An unnamed UK government spokeswoman said Truss informed Lapid “about her review of the current location of the British Embassy in Israel,” according to news reports.
During her campaign for the leadership of the British Conservative Party, Truss told the Conservative Friends of Israel that she would review the UK’s decision to remain in Tel Aviv if she became the British leader.
“I understand the importance and sensitivity of the location of the British Embassy in Israel. I’ve had many conversations with my good friend Prime Minister Yair Lapid on this topic,” she said.
Angered by the UK premier’s announcement, the Palestinians described the statements as “a new Balfour Declaration” and said it proves Britain’s bias in favor of the Israeli regime.
Hamas group and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad condemned the PM’s potential move of the British embassy.
“The announcement by the British Prime Minister Liz Truss about her intention to move her country’s embassy to Jerusalem is a flagrant bias toward the occupying regime,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Qanou said at the time.
He warned that the move would not give ‘Israel’ any legitimacy “over one inch of our land.”
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, warned that moving the British embassy would be considered as a new crime by Britain against Palestinian people.
Islamic Jihad senior official Mohammed Shalah accused Britain of continuing to display “arrogance” against Palestinians.
“We are not surprised by what Britain is doing in light of the ongoing Arab and Islamic silence,” Shalah said. “We blame the Arab and Islamic countries that are supposed to support Jerusalem.”
Another Islamic Jihad official, Tareq Salmi, warned that the controversial British plan would anger Arabs and Muslims.
He denounced the move as a “hideous colonial aggression” against Palestinians, adding, “Britain is directly responsible for the tragedy of Palestinian people.”
In 2017, former US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to the occupied Jerusalem in May 2018, prompting criticism from the Palestinians, most Muslim-majority countries, and many states in Europe, as they concerned that it would undermine prospects for a two-state solution to the so-called “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The United States, Honduras, Guatemala, and Kosovo are the only nations who have their embassies in occupied Jerusalem.
