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Netanyahu has ‘moving moment’ at location of Balfour Declaration

Netanyahu stressed the “international legal status of the land of Israel” upon visiting the place where the Balfour Declaration, which recognized Jewish national rights to historic Palestine, was written. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu experienced a “particularly moving moment” upon visiting the place where one of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s predecessors, Arthur Balfour, signed the “Balfour Declaration” almost 100 years ago.

“Being in this room was a particularly moving moment for me as the prime minister of Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook as he was “with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, exactly in the place where nearly 100 years ago Foreign Secretary Balfour signed the declaration recognizing the right of the Jewish people to a national home in the Land of Israel.”

The Balfour Declaration, which declared “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” on November 2, 1917, officially became part of international law when the League of Nations adopted it in 1922. Although the original mandate of Palestine had included land that now belongs to the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine only applied to territory west of the Jordan River, but did include Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

“The Balfour Declaration was incorporated into the terms of the British Mandate and adopted by the United Nations – and until today it remains a binding document that defines the international legal status of the Land of Israel,” remarked Netanyahu.

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Netanyahu also met on Monday with the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Theresa May, where he discussed the need to tackle new and emerging threats from Iran.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News