Balfour Day
Balfour Day is the name given to an annual commemoration of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, by Palestinians, Israelis and their supporters.
Jewish celebration
[edit]From 1918 until World War II, Jews in Mandatory Palestine celebrated Balfour Day as an annual national holiday on 2 November.[1][2] The celebrations included ceremonies in schools and other public institutions and festive articles in the Hebrew press.
Palestinian mourning
[edit]
Palestinian Arabs began marking Balfour Day as a day of mourning across the country. This included a general strike, with shops were closed, newspapers printed with black borders, and black flags hung. The protests were often an occasion for Palestinian unity, since they had no religious significance.[3]
The British government in Palestine did not support the Palestinian Arab strike, so the Arab Executive did not always announce it officially.[4]
Strikes and protests also took place in other cities, such as Beirut, Damascus and Cairo.[5]
Formal commemoration was limited during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, when most Palestinian political structures stopped functioning.[6]
The country-wide Balfour Day strike was formally restarted in 1945.[7]
Bibliography
[edit]- Elie Podeh, "The Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Balfour Declaration (1967) and Israel" [שונות בתוך מפגן של אחדות: חגיגות יובל הזהב להצהרת בלפור (1967) בישראל ] Israel, Volume 17 (2010), pp 90-59.
- Tamir Sorek, Calendars, Martyrs, and Palestinian Particularism under British Rule, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Autumn 2013), pp. 6-23
- Sorek, Tamir (6 May 2015). Palestinian Commemoration in Israel: Calendars, Monuments, and Martyrs. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-9520-3.