Palestinians sue Britain for Balfour Declaration

Palestinian lawyers yesterday filed a complaint to sue the British government for the 1917 declaration setting out London's support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. 

The lawyers filed a complaint in the occupied West Bank town of Nablus that claimed "the suffering of the Palestinians" stemmed from this document.

The Balfour Declaration, signed by the then British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour, is seen as a precursor to Israel's creation in 1948.

The Balfour Declaration was published on November 2, 1917, a year before the end of World War I.

In one sentence it announced the British government's backing for the establishment within Palestine, then a region of the Ottoman Empire, of "a national home for the Jewish people".

With the Balfour Declaration, London was seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a homeland for Jews was an emerging political force.