VIDEO: Palestinian Mission building will upgrade to embassy in UK

Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, addressed a gathering outside the Palestinian Mission in central London to mark its upgrade to Palestine’s official embassy.

“We are gathered today in front of the Palestinian Mission to the UK here in London to mark a historic moment,” said Zomlot.

“In the same capital of the Balfour Declaration, after more than a century of ongoing denial, dispossession and erasure, the UK government has finally taken the long overdue step of recognising the state of Palestine.”

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Holding up a plaque, he said, to cheers from the crowd: “Very soon, pending some legal work, some bureaucratic work…. this plaque, which reads ‘The Embassy of the State of Palestine’… will be placed right behind me on this building.”

He said that the moment was “not only about Palestine, it is also about Britain and the British government’s solemn responsibility”.

“It is about ending the denial of the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to freedom and self-determination and it is an acknowledgement of a historic injustice,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen, Palestine exists, it has always existed, and it always will.”

Before its upgrade, the Palestinian Mission in London handled diplomatic and consular affairs but did not have full embassy status.