Britain urged to recognize sovereign Palestinian state

Palestinian officials have called on the UK to recognize an independent Palestinian state and press the Israeli regime to end its colonial activities in the occupied lands.

In a meeting with British minister of state for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson should recognize Palestine in a statement akin to the Balfour Declaration that led to the creation of Israel.

The document issued in November 1917 by the then British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour said the UK government “views with favor the establishment in Palestine of” Israel.

It set the stage for the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian fled or were expelled from their homes by Israel during the 1948 war.

“Balfour became famous for his promise … to establish” Israel on the land of Palestine, Maliki said, adding, “I call for the current British foreign secretary to be famous for giving the Palestinians a promise called the ‘Johnson declaration’ that recognizes a Palestinian state.”