Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, on Wednesday blasted the Balfour Declaration and called it “the crime of the century”.

The November 2, 1917, Balfour Declaration was sent by then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild for transfer to the leaders of the Zionist Movement and proclaimed Britain’s support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in what was known then as Southern Syria or Palestine.

Palestine was not the name of an Arab state, as none had ever existed in the area, but the ancient name given by the Roman Empire, after It destroyed the Jews' Second Holy Temple in 70 CE, to the area south of Syria reaching from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Sea. The name, a throwback to the long gone Philistine tribes who came from the Greek isles to live along the coast of Canaan and were constantly at war with the Jews in biblical times - Goliath was a Philistine, for example - until their dispersal by Judaean King Hezekiah (Kings II, 18) was chosen in an attempt to punish the rebellious Jews by erasing their history.

In a statement issued to mark the 99th anniversary of the declaration, Abu Rudeineh said that this "crime" brought disaster upon the Palestinian Arab people whose consequences, including living as refugees, are evident to this day. The Balfour Declaration, however, protected the rights of minorities in the Jewish homeland.

He called on Britain to reconsider its position and correct its "historical mistake" which, he claimed, remains a “mark of Cain on the forehead of humanity.”

Abbas’s spokesman further said that the "colonial approach" is what “sowed the seeds of the wars that still take place in the region and the world”. The Palestinian leadership, said Abu Rudeineh, continues to work to correct the "injustice" through the formal, international recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people.

His remarks come several days after the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) launched a new campaign in an attempt force Great Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration.

The PLO has gone so far as to threaten to sue Britain over the 99-year-old document. The threat has been criticized by Israeli officials, including former Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, who said the initiative “demonstrates yet again the continuing refusal of the Palestinian side to recognize the legitimate and indigenous connection of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.”