In protests marking the 103rd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians have called on Britain to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration and recognize an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.

On Monday, hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in the center of the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners against the declaration, which was issued by the British government on Nov. 2, 1917, announcing its support for the Jewish people to build their state on Palestine's lands.

The protesters stressed their commitment to their motherland and their right of return.

At the same time, protests and sit-ins were organized at schools and universities, denouncing the tragic consequences of the Balfour Declaration on the Palestinian people.

More than a century on, millions of Palestinian refugees continue to grapple with the devastating upshots of the Balfour Declaration, which led to a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians.

Issued on November 2, 1917, the declaration turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality when Britain publicly pledged to establish "a national home for the Jewish people" there.

The pledge came in the form of a letter from Britain's then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community.

Though the Balfour Declaration included the admonition that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine", the British mandate was set up in a way to equip Jews with the tools to establish self-rule, at the expense of the Palestinian Arabs.