GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad Malki gave a speech on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas at the 27th Arab League Summit July 25 in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott. In his speech, he said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) intends to file a lawsuit against Britain in international courts for issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which was used as a basis for the creation of Israel on Palestinian territories in 1948.

“We ask the secretariat-general of the Arab League to help us bring a case against the British government for issuing the Balfour Declaration, which resulted in the Palestinian Nakba [in 1948],” Malki said.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the Nakba occurred when the Israeli forces expelled over 800,000 Palestinians from their villages and towns, forcing them to move to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and neighboring Arab countries such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Israeli forces took over 774 Palestinian villages and cities, 531 of which they destroyed, and committed over 70 massacres, resulting in the death of over 15,000 Palestinians during the Nakba, according to the same source.

In a written press statement published July 27, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the PA’s attempt to sue Britain and said that Israel will work to thwart the move. He further noted that such step indicates that the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in the Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state, whatever its borders are.