LONDON: As the UK marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, an Arab News survey of students in London showed widespread support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Marna Judson, a student at the New College of the Humanities, said the 1917 declaration was “careless.”
“We didn’t stop to think who might suffer because of (the Balfour Declaration),” she said. “It was a gesture that had such huge repercussions that weren’t properly evaluated at the time. The Palestinian people are not getting the voice they deserve,” she said.
Leslie, a computer science PhD student at University College London (UCL), who declined to give his full name, said his sympathies came down on the side of the Palestinians. “They have suffered a great deal and they are at rock-bottom,” he said.
“When (the British) wanted to relinquish control of what was known then as the Mandate for Palestine, they should have technically involved all parties in the discussion, which they did not do.”
Others said there had been wrongdoing on both sides of the conflict. “Both are doing things wrong to one another. They’re both killing, and I don’t think either side should be excused,” said Ahmed, a physics student at UCL.
At the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where a tangled Palestinian flag adorns a tree in the main thoroughfare, students were strongly pro-Palestinian. “Putting (Palestinians) in jail when your soldiers are killing people with submachine guns is ridiculous,” said Phoebe Craig.
She dismissed criticism that anti-Semitism was a problem at SOAS, saying: “We have no problem with Israel. It’s Israel’s policy toward Palestine.”
Many students expressed sympathy with the Palestinian people. “There should be a Palestinian state. At least that way they could be treated as equals on the international stage,” said Anwar, an MA student at the London School of Economic (LSE).
There was little agreement about what the UK should do to bring about a solution. Some called for the UK to impose economic sanctions against Israel as a way of bringing about Palestinian nationhood.
Liam Anderson, a Birkbeck student, said: “Part of you thinks, well, of course (the UK) needs to intervene and sort these things out, but then again intervention is the thing that caused the situation in the first place. But at the same time you can’t leave a nation like Palestine to sort itself out because it’s so poor. How is it going to do that in the face of Israel?”
The view from campus 100 years after Balfour
The view from campus 100 years after Balfour
Hundreds mourn in Syria’s Homs after deadly mosque bombing
- Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect
HOMS: Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday despite rain and cold outside of a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs where a bombing the day before killed eight people and wounded 18.
The crowd gathered next to the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al-Dhahab neighborhood, where the population is predominantly from the Alawite minority, before driving in convoys to bury the victims.
Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.
A neighbor of the mosque, who asked to be identified only by the honorific Abu Ahmad (“father of Ahmad“) out of security concerns, said he was at home when he heard the sound of a “very very strong explosion.”
He and other neighbors went to the mosque and saw terrified people running out of it, he said. They entered and began trying to help the wounded, amid blood and scattered body parts on the floor.
While the neighborhood is primarily Alawite, he said the mosque had always been open to members of all sects to pray.
“It’s the house of God,” he said. “The mosque’s door is open to everyone. No one ever asked questions. Whoever wants to enter can enter.”
Mourners were unable to enter the mosque to pray Saturday because the crime scene remained cordoned off, so they prayed outside.
Some then marched through the streets chanting “Ya Ali,” in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law whom Shiite Muslims consider to be his rightful successor.
