The Palestinian Return Center (PRC) on Monday held a panel discussion about the Balfour declaration on the sidelines of the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The participants in the debate called on Britain to necessarily apologize for the declaration, which they said led to the displacement of millions of Palestinians and brought endless calamities upon them

In his speech, Salman Abu Sitta, head of the general committee for the National Conference for the Palestinians Abroad, talked about Britain’s role in establishing the Israeli occupation state and committing massacres against the Palestinian people.

Abu Sitta demanded Britain to apologize for the letter made by its foreign secretary Arthur Balfour in 1917 on Palestine and compensate the Palestinian people financially for the harm and destruction which they have suffered from at the hands of the Zionists for over 100 years.

For his part, head of the Palestinian Prisoner Society Qaddura Fares criticized Britain for its refusal to apologize for the Balfour declaration, stressing that the Palestinian people at home and abroad are in agreement that Britain must shoulder its responsibilities towards them.

PRC chairman Majed al-Zeer, in turn, spoke on the importance of the role that can be played by civil society and human rights groups in pressuring the British government to apologize for its crimes in Palestine.