Gaza's Arabs plan hostile welcome for 'Balfour Number Two'

War on Terrorism: Palestine

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They are unimpressed by Tony Blair and have never heard of Alastair Campbell, but one British politician was on everyone's lips in Gaza yesterday: Arthur James Balfour.

The Prime Minister will arrive in the besieged Gaza Strip later today to discover that the 1.2 million Arab residents are less interested in his "coalition-building" mission than in the deeds of an earlier British government, forgotten on the streets of Britain but ingrained in the mind of every Palestinian. As ill luck and poor planning would have it, today is the eve of the 84th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Only hours before Mr Blair is due to arrive, a large demonstration is planned in Gaza to mark the occasion, moved forward by a day to remind him of his country's historical contribution to the Middle East conflict.

Palestinians stopped at random outside Gaza City's Islamic University yesterday remembered the declaration's wording by heart. They accurately recalled the text in which – on 2 November 1917 – Lord Balfour, then the Foreign Secretary, declared that the British government "views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people".

The phrase was pivotal to the Zionist campaign to secure a Jewish homeland – which came into being 31 years later – but was regarded by Palestinians as the day on which Britain, the colonial superpower, publicly agreed to give away their land.

The latter will be recalled by Gazans today. The march is organised by the "Islamic National Follow-Up Committee" – the highly influential coalition of political factions which organises the non-military part of the intifada. So Yasser Arafat and his security forces – whom human rights officials say have arrested more than 20 activists in recent days – are not expected to repeat the bloody crackdown on anti-Western demonstrations, launched under pressure from America.

"This march is to show that Tony Blair is Balfour Number Two," said Ismael Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas political leader in Gaza. "Palestinians have not forgotten. They understand that Balfour caused all their years of suffering."

Gazans seemed to have forgotten the Balfour declaration's other half. No one trotted out Balfour's line about it being "clearly understood that nothing should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish people in Palestine," probably because it has never been applied.

Israel was certainly ignoring it yesterday. While Mr Blair was in Damascus, Israel's forces invaded another West Bank village, Arrabah near Jenin, in search of guerrillas – this time in response to Sunday's drive-by killing of four women in the Israeli town of Hadera.

They committed other assassinations – an Islamic militant, Jamil Jadallah, killed when an Israeli Apache helicopter blasted missiles into the barn in which he was hiding in Hebron, and a Hamas activist, hit by a tank shell in Tulkarm.