Britain in Palestine 1917-1948
Britain in Palestine 1917-1948 investigates the contradictory promises and actions which defined British Mandatory rule in Palestine and laid the groundwork for the Nakba (the catastrophe) and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The roots of the contemporary social, political, economic, and environmental landscape of Palestine and Israel can be traced back to this period, making it essential viewing for understanding Britain’s legacy in the region and the situation on the ground today. MORE
The BPP Executive Director, Dr Brian Brivati, argues that most of the international legal questions raised by “Trump’s Board of Peace” (BoP) and the related National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), flow from the BoP Charter, which purports to supply authority for Gaza’s transitional governance while also gesturing toward a far broader conflict-resolution role. MORE
Israel fruit exports in post-Gaza distress
Israeli fruit producers and exporters are getting a big ‘No’ from European import concerns–and the invasion of Gaza and its epic consequences of death and destruction for Palestinians is the main reason. Jonathan Ofir of Mondoweiss reports. MORE
BOOK REVIEW: A Historian in Gaza by Jean-Pierre Filiu
A French historian of the Gaza Strip revisits it during the height of the Israeli blitz at the turn of 2024/5 and records the death, the destruction and the courage under fire. Mike Scott-Baumann reports. MORE
Email your MP: ban UK trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Illegal settlements are a war crime. UK trade with them must stop. Use our template to urge your MP to support a full ban on UK trade, services and investment linked to illegal Israeli settlements — and to uphold international law. MORE
BOOK REVIEW: What IS antisemitism?
A distinguished British historian, Mark Mazower, tries to bring precision to the meaning of ‘antisemitism’ separating the recent ‘coalescence’ of anti-Jewish feeling from previous generations of animosity. His book, On Antisemitism: A Word in History, is reviewed by the Guardian columnist Rafael Behr. MORE
During the past two years, Israeli settlers have established a record number of new outposts in the occupied territory. The goal is to win on the ground what might otherwise be lost at a negotiating table. Palestinian communities that for centuries were part of a closely knit landscape, like these near Ramallah, are increasingly on their own, surrounded and isolated. For grieving Palestinians, the desperation is growing. How much longer will they be able to stay? MORE
Hamas fighters during the handing over of the bodies of Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, 20 Feb 2025. (Doaa Albaz/Activestills)
Hamas: a nascent policy beyond strife
Hamas, beyond the rhetoric, writes Menachem Klein, acknowledges that the fighting now has to be converted into political and social gains as part of the Trump peace plans. And it looks to Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye as its main allies in this quest. MORE
Israel campaign to dismantle refugee camps
A Jenin-based jurnalist reports on the Israeli army’s campaign to destroy or suppress Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank so as to counter resistance and ultimately break the crucial connections between the camps’ populations and the Nakba and the right of return. MORE
Kairos: Christians reject ‘unbearable hell’ of Palestinian living conditions
In a new document, launched in Bethlehem, Kairos Palestine rejects dialogue with Christian Zionism and accuses Israel of turning Palestinian existence into an “unbearable hell.” MORE
Former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber says the 17 Nov 2025 UN Security Council Resolution on Gaza puts the US and its client state Israel in direct colonial charge of Gaza and deprives all Palestinians of any route or right to self-determination. MORE
A displaced Palestinian girl looks out of a tent amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, 4 Nov 2025 (Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)
The Trump plan for Gaza leaves Palestinians and Israelis even more irrevocably entrenched in their positions: no Palestinian state, say Israelis; but more support for Hamas among Palestinians. Menachem Klein reports on a psychological and political stalemate. MORE
Archbishop speaks out on genocide
After his visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank, and personal experience of the settlers, the Archbishop of York says Israel’s occupation constitutes apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and in Gaza there is strong evidence to suggest genocide. MORE
BOOK REVIEW: Embedded with Israel – the UK in Gaza
Peter Oborne’s powerful new book sets out in starkest detail the story of official Britain’s backing for Israel in its campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza—and its denial and suppression of its own citizenry, which mostly opposes it. MORE
German researchers list 100,000 Gaza dead
The Max Planck Institute in Germany confirms that Israel has killed more than 100,000 Gazans since its military campaign began after 7 Oct 2023. MORE
How the first High Commissioner rigged Palestine for the Zionists
Herbert Samuel, Britain’s first—and Zionist—High Commissioner in Palestine, was able to deploy the contradictions and vagaries of the Balfour Declaration to the eternal advantage of the Zionists, right from the start. MORE
Origins of the Israel-Palestine conflict
The Balfour Declaration was published on the 2nd November 1917. It stated the intent of the British government to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This week, William Dalrymple (historian and BPP patron) and Anita Anand (historian) are joined by Tom Segev (Israeli historian and writer) to discuss the declaration and the ensuing British mandate for Palestine. MORE
FILM REVIEW: Britain’s cruel crushing of the Arab Revolt
John Bond reviews Palestine 36, the moving and revealing feature film that shows how British forces used murderous methods to end the Palestinian Arab uprising of 1936-39 against British Mandate rule and its handing of land to the Zionists. Those methods are still in use today, by Israel, in all the occupied Palestinian territory. And Ian Wellens, a PSC member in Devon, adds his reactions. MORE
The killing of Palestinians in Gaza continues, reports our man there, Sami Abu Salem, trappped with his family in the central strip. The Israelis need war, he says—they prefer the military field to the political, for there they are the stronger. Hear his report. MORE
1915-1917: Britain’s historic contradictions in Palestine
The recognition of Palestine as a state refocuses attention on exactly what was and is Britain’s 20th Century legacy in the Holy Land. Nowhere is this put better and more succinctly than in this 2016 lecture on events involving Sir Henry McMahon, Mark Sykes and Arthur Balfour: it examines more than two years’ spread of British duplicity and contradictory policies whose consequences live on in the disaster of Palestine. Historian William M Mathew explores the imperative requirements of war and imperialism that drove Britain to make the modern Middle East. MORE
A Mandate for Memory: addressing Britain’s responsibility
BPP Executive Director Brian Brivati, in a personal essay, examines the ethics and practicalities of a new Palestinian campaign to persuade Britain to accept publicly and apologise for the harms and consequences of its 31-year rule over Palestine; and to reveal all relevant documents. MORE
Israel learned methods to suppress Palestinians from British Forces
From reshaping land ownership through land laws in 1920 to the brutal suppression of the Arab revolt using administrative detention, house demolition, assassination, exile and collective punishment, Britain ensured there would be no Palestinian state and significantly shaped the region’s history. MORE
Exposing the Israeli lie of the ‘Arab Nakba broadcasts’
Sixty-four years ago, the Irish journalist Erskine Childers first exposed the falsity of Israel’s claims that Arab and Palestinian leaders made radio broadcasts encouraging Palestinians to flee their homeland. Read his full article in The Spectator of 1961. MORE
BOOK REVIEW: West Bank camps attacks – echoes of the Mandate
During the Arab Revolt of 1936-39 the British carried out brutal military attacks on Palestinian civilians in rural areas, forerunners of what seems to be Israel’s latest policy of emptying the camps of the northern occupied West Bank of their refugee population. MORE
Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in an Israeli attack while waiting for humanitarian aid, at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza City, August 21, 2025. (Yousef Zaanoun/Activestills)
In Gaza, Israel’s mission-oriented motives and genocidal motives overlapped and reinforced one another: and the very words of the political leaders and generals confirmed it all. An Israeli investigative reporter with +972 traces Israel’s death and destruction rampage against Gaza, and considers the Holocaust and the Nakba. MORE
Historian Avi Shlaim charts the century-long connivance, at great Palestinian cost, between British premiers from both main political parties and the Zionist movement/Israel governments. MORE
No rights, no self-determination for the Palestinians; Palestine divided; the Arab states conned but conniving; Tony Blair in charge via a ‘Board of Peace’; and Israel remains at large in Gaza. David Hearst, Editor of Middle East Eye, sums up yet another betrayal of the Palestinians. MORE
Palestine: UK must act against genocide and settlements following recognition
The full statement we run in Articles sets out the Britain Palestine Project’s considered view on the UK’s recognition of the State of Palestine. Recognition is a vital first step, but it must be given real meaning through action. Britain’s historic responsibilities, and its obligations as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, require more than symbolic gestures: they demand decisive measures to end genocide and famine in Gaza, to stop illegal settlement expansion, and to support Palestinian statehood on the basis of international law. Read full statement here
Recognition Is the Beginning merch: wear the message, keep the movement alive
The UK’s recognition of the State of Palestine is a historic step – but it’s only the beginning. Real justice, equality, and freedom still demand action. Our new ‘Recognition Is the Beginning’ merch collection celebrates this moment while calling for meaningful change. From T-shirts and hats to notebooks and stickers, every item helps amplify the message that recognition must lead to real progress. SHOP THE COLLECTION.
The continuing disappearance of Gaza’s Dr Hussain Abu Safiya
Seized from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on 27 Dec 2024, Dr.Abu Safiya, the hospital’s acting director, languishes in custody, after much brutal treatment, in an Israeli jail in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. It is a story of violence and cruelty (Israel’s) and heroic resistance and dedication (his and his medical team’s). MORE
Stop Trade with Settlements – Campaign Launch
The Britain Palestine Project is proud to support the launch of the international campaign to ban trade with Israel’s illegal settlements, backed by a new report Trading with Illegal Settlements. Endorsed by over 80 organisations worldwide, the report exposes how settlement trade fragments the West Bank, displaces Palestinians, and sustains Israel’s illegal occupation. It highlights the complicity of corporations such as JCB and Barclays, and sets out clear demands for governments and businesses to end settlement-linked trade, services and investment. MORE
E1: cutting the West Bank in half
The BPP explains the massive settlement project east of Jerusalem, slicing the occupied West Bank in half, west-to-east as far as the Jordan Valley, and isolating East Jerusalem from the Palestinian territory; and urges the British Government to take seriously punitive measures against Israel if it goes ahead with the plan. MORE
How the British obtained a ruling on Western Wall ownership
Tawfiq al-Ghussein goes back to 1930 to track the British decision to have an international body rule decisively on the ownership of the Buraq, or Western, Wall, in Jerusalem, and the outcome. MORE
Britain Palestine Project calls on the UK Government to act on ICJ Genocide Prevention Provisional Measures
As a charity dedicated to equal rights, justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians, and education about Britain’s historical legacy in Palestine, the BPP calls on the UK Government to live up to its obligations under international law, including under the 1948 Genocide Convention. Below we outline a series of measures that the Government could and should take to fulfil its obligations under the Genocide Convention. The prevention of genocide and mass atrocities is a legal obligation for all nations. Only through decisive action can the UK help save lives in Gaza and hold the Government of Israel to account. MORE
Britain’s moral duty towards Israel
Peter Shambrook, author of the seminal history of Britain’s broken promises to the Arabs during the past century, says it is now time for our Government to try to redeem itself and and act decisively to rein in Israel. MORE
The Second Nakba in full flood
The Israeli activist David Shulman reports from the frontlines of the West Bank on Netanyahu’s full-scale war, using soldiers and armed settlers, against the people of the occupied Palestinian territory—crimes against humanity, he writes, on a large scale. MORE
Israel’s crimes against humanity in Palestine: UN report
A new United Nations report on Israel’s attacks across occupied Palestine condemns the state’s ‘genocidal intent’ —to prevent religious practice, to erase culture and history—in its continual destruction of Muslim and Christian sites, of schools and universities, and of the Palestinians in them. MORE
UK MPs urge sanctions on Israel
Citing acts of genocide or serious risks thereof, forcible population transfer and territorial annexation in the occupied Palestinian territory, 96 United Kingdom MPs urge the Prime Minister to impose sanctions on Israel. MORE
The strong UK tradiion of Jewish anti-Zionism
The British Jewish scholar Joseph Finlay, recounts the powerful and varied history of UK Jewish opposition to Zionism, for reasons including the religious, the practical, the patriotic, the ideological- political and, more recently, support for Palestinian rights and freedom. MORE