Published on the Facebook page of the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, the video of the protest with a life-size effigy of Balfour would be comical if it didn't highlight the intractability of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which two opposing narratives of history have existed side by side . . . basically since Balfour sent his letter to the head of the British Jewish community on Nov. 2, 1917.

On Thursday, as Palestinian schoolchildren delivered thousands of their own letters to the British Consulate in Jerusalem calling on the British leadership to recognize their ongoing suffering, Israeli schoolchildren spent the day learning of a heroic British leader who turned their ancestors' ideological wishful thinking into a reality.

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In Ramallah, thousands marched from the city center to the British Consulate waving black flags and carrying signs saying “Balfour was a white supremacist, his legacy is apartheid.”

Similar protests were held in other West Bank towns Thursday and, in some cases, the Israeli military responded by firing tear gas toward the crowds. In Bethlehem, British artist Banksy, who recently opened the controversial “Walled-off” hotel there, held a mock tea party satirically apologizing for Balfour’s letter creating a “century of confusion and conflict.”

“Today we mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, when the British colonial power promised Palestine, a land that wasn’t theirs, to the Zionist movement, thus ignoring the political and national rights of the indigenous Palestinian people,” wrote Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in a statement.

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He criticized the British government for marking “100 years of injustice, racism and violence” with a celebration — British Prime Minister Theresa May will speak on Thursday at a special dinner in London.

Erekat called on the British government to apologize instead for the “shameful declaration.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to London on Wednesday to meet with May and mark the centennial of Balfour's missive. The British and Israeli leaders will attend a festive dinner together, organized by Baron Jacob Rothschild, a descendant of Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, the prominent leader of the British Jewish community who received Balfour’s declaration. Roderick Balfour, the fifth Lord Balfour, will also attend the event.

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“A hundred years ago, the Balfour Declaration helped pave the way for the reestablishment of an independent state for the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland,” said Netanyahu during his meeting with May.

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He said that after 100 years, “the Palestinians should finally accept the Jewish national home and the Jewish state.”

At the dinner, May is expected to express pride in Britain's role in creating the state of Israel and also make clear she believes criticizing Israel’s actions should not be an excuse for questioning Israel’s right to exist as a country, a statement from the event's organizers said.