Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 4:35 PM

Subject: There, for a conker goes Palestine

The Editor,
The Sunday Telegraph
London, U.K.

31 Aug. 2000

Dear Editor:

Robert Matthews’ article: " How the conker helped re-shape the 20^th. century" {Aug. 27}, makes interesting reading.

By rewarding Chaim Weizmann ,for his contribution in the discovery of acetone and the conkers in the manufacture of explosives, Mr. David Lloyd George and Lord Arthur Balfour were expressing the height of ‘generosity’, at another people’s expense, by offering, in the Balfour Declaration, Palestine to the World Zionist Organisation. Thus, they brought about the disposession of the Palestinian people and the continuing Middle East conflict throughot the century.

The renowned British historian Professor Arnold Toynbee referred to the Balfour Declaration in these words: " We were taking it upon our selves to give away something that was not ours to give. We were promising rights of some kind in the Palestinian Arabs’ country to a third party". Arthur Koestler, the noted Jewish writer,described the Balfour Declaration in these words: " One nation promised another the country of a third".

Yours sincerely

Dr. Ismail Zayid