“I do not agree that the dog (Palestinians) in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place,” said Winston Churchill.
Indeed, the presence of the British Empire in Palestine is a significant chapter in the complex history of the region.
Following the fall of the Ottoman State and the end of World War I, British forces took control of Palestine under a League of Nations mandate.
In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the British government expressed support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, sowing the seeds of conflict between Jewish and Arab communities in the region.
The British withdrawal from Palestine in 1948 paved the way for the United Nations to propose the partition plan that eventually led to the establishment of the State of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Despite the perception of neutrality, the British monarchy’s long and violent history in Palestine is the reason that Palestinians did not mourn Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Even while walking around occupied Palestine, the connection between Israel and the royal family is visibly indisputable.
Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice, is buried in the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.
A few yards away from Princess Alice’s grave, you will find King George Street, a former Palestinian street renamed after Israel occupied Jerusalem, in honour of the Queen’s father, King George VI, for his contribution to the founding of the Israeli State.
When Princess Anne Royal was born in 1950, South Africa was still a colony of the British Empire. As a colonial tradition, her name was given to a road in Newlands as Lady Anne Avenue, and it still has not been changed.
What does Princess Anne really mean for South Africa today? Why has it not been changed to Steve Biko, Tatamkhulu Afrika, or Abdullah Abdurrahman Avenue to honour the real heroes in the history of South Africa?
There are many streets in South Africa still named after colonial characters. Palatine Road in Plumstead is one of them. Why don’t we change it to Palestine Road? Palatine means a feudal lord having local authority that elsewhere belongs only to a sovereign.
If we don’t need feudal lords anymore, why don’t we work for justice and Ubuntu in the world? Colombia, Argentina, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye have named streets “Palestine” to support Palestinians. Why not South Africa? If not today, when are we going to do it for Palestine?
* Halim Gencoglu, Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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