Britain Palestine Project
Peace with justice, security and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians
UNRWA must continue its vital work, says UK parliamentary report on occupied Palestinian territory, citing humanitarian catastrophe 20 January 2025 Summary of the report and recommendations The report by the UK parliamentary International Development Committee* provides a critical examination of the humanitarian and legal dimensions of the ongoing situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).…
15 January 2025 The Balfour Project is delighted to announce the appointment of Brian Brivati as its first Executive Director as of today, 15 January 2025. This appointment marks an important step forward in the growth of the charity as an effective British advocate for peace with justice and equality for Palestinians and Israelis alike.…
By Richard Burden 3 Jan 2025: The picture on our Home Page is a photo that will come to symbolise the sheer enormity of Israel’s assault on healthcare in Gaza and its attempt to empty the north of Gaza of Palestinians altogether. It is ethnic cleansing and it is deliberate policy. It is not even…
Introduction by Timothy Mattar, Trustee 27 November 2024 The Balfour Project is proud to share the findings of a recent survey entitled ‘Palestine, Israel and the British’, examining the views of the British public on the war in Gaza and solutions to the wider conflict. This timely research, organised by UKPAN and supported by the…
Today, 5 Dec 2024, Amnesty International, a respected, international non-governmental organisation, has published an extensive report which concludes that Israel has committed, and is continuing to commit, a genocide in Gaza. Please read the report here. The report uses the framework of the Genocide Convention to examine prohibited acts contained within it and the specific…
These are the words of Amro, the informally adopted Gazan grandson of MIRANDA PINCH, a long-time member of the Balfour Project Advisory Forum. Miranda recently made a solidarity pilgrimage to the illegally Israeli occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as representative of the Sabeel-Kairos charity, which supports peace and justice in the Holy Land. There…
By Lara Bird-Leakey 30 Oct 2024 In an unsurprising yet unprecedented attack, the Israeli Knesset voted on Monday 28 Oct to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (for Palestinian refugees) inside Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The legislation states that UNRWA “shall not establish any representation, provide any services or conduct…
By Lara Bird-Leakey 25 October 2024 For 384 days the world has watched the horrors unleashed by a rogue state acting with complete impunity. For 384 days, the UK Government has used the shield of Western democracy to ignore the rule of law and turn a blind eye to the victimisation of the Palestinian people,…
As a result of the worsening situation in the Palestinian Territory, as well as the July ruling by the ICJ Advisory Opinion that the occupation in this territory by Israel is illegal, the Balfour Project wrote the letter below to Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP. A copy was also sent to Attorney General Lord Hermer,…
By Richard Burden While the news from the Middle East is understandably now focusing on the horrors unfolding in Lebanon and the real threat of tit for tat strikes between Israel and Iran escalating into a full-scale regional war, please do not forget the agony which people in Gaza and the West Bank continue to…
‘Your name and your deeds were forgotten Before your bones were dry, And the lie that slew you is buried Under a deeper lie. ‘But the thing that I saw in your face No power can disinherit: No bomb that ever burst Shatters the crystal spirit.’ These words of George Orwell’s, written in an essay…
During the First World War, Britain promised the Arabs of the Ottoman-ruled Middle East an independent state in exchange for revolting against the Ottomans. The British changed course soon after, breaking their promise to the Arabs, and paving a way for the creation of a Jewish state on Palestinian lands. In this intervew with The…
On 18 September the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted to adopt a resolution which reaffirms the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 19 July 2024. The vote followed a debate concerning Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. There were 124 votes in favour,…
By Lara Bird-Leakey Three months ago, a small village in Area C called Um al-Khair suffered the worst demonstration of settler colonial violence and annexation in the West Bank since 7th October. Seemingly random settler violence ripped through the village and came to a head on the 26th June. Israeli settlers destroyed 25 houses, rendering…
Richard Burden and Dr Phyllis Starkey, both former Labour MPs and both Balfour Project Trustees, set out eight targets for Keir Starmer’s Government to restore balance to UK policy. This entails more effective measures with regards to Israel and affirmation of the Palestinian right to self-determination. Political parties across Europe and in the USA have failed…
By Richard Burden 2 Sept 2024 In June 2023, I visited a hospital in Nablus, in the Israel-occupied West Bank, a few hours after it had been surrounded by Israeli troops. The attacks that have been launched on West Bank towns, villages and refugee camps this week are a big escalation but they are still…
Click here to download this as a Word document. Preamble Labour Party election manifesto, 2024 “Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. It is not in the gift of any neighbour and is also essential to the long-term security of Israel. We are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution…
By Diana Safieh This article first appeared in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs of August/September 2024, pp. 20-2 ON 6 JUNE this year, at a Balfour Project conference in London, Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh discussed the unique survivor’s guilt felt by Palestinians in the West Bank during Israel’s current war in Gaza.…
Successes so far: Summary We asked the Government, through David Lammy, the new Foreign Secretary to change its predecessor’s policy now in several ways, consistent with the comprehensive Action Points produced after our annual conference in June. The results so far are: Details UNRWA Funding– Foreign Secretary David Lammy restored UK funding, allocating £21m towards UNRWA’s…
Today, the ICJ has delivered its Opinion: the 1967 Israeli occupation is unlawful. The Balfour Project supports this Opinion and calls on the British Government to do so. In 2022 the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ two questions: The Court dismissed the Conservative Government’s contention that it should decline to deliver an opinion. The…
Balfour Project urges UK to support court Today [19 July 2024], the ICJ has delivered its Opinion: the 1967 Israeli occupation is unlawful. The Balfour Project supports this Opinion and calls on the British Government to do so. In 2022 the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ two questions: The Court dismissed the Conservative Government’s…
The Balfour Project’s Lara Bird-Leakey reports on the latest settler raids in the South Hebron Hills and the imminent erasure of a Palestinian community “The worst day ever in Umm Al-Khair. The Israeli occupation forces are destroying people’s homes. So far, they have destroyed four houses. They are still in the village and continuing destroying,…
Letter to the Editor, Church Times, 7 June 2024 From the Rt Revd Michael Doe (Balfour Project Trustee), the Very Revd Nicholas Frayling (Chair of the Balfour Project Advisory Forum), and the Rt Revd John Pritchard (Balfour Project Patron) Sir, — As beneficiaries of the Church of England Pension Scheme, we are particularly concerned with…
Article in The Independent, 27 May 2024 For more than a century, Britain has shown scant respect for Palestinian rights, says our former envoy in Jerusalem, Sir Vincent Fean – we must now play our part in creating a framework for peace. Palestinian self-determination is the key to a just peace in the Middle East.…
Peace with Justice – how to get there Email your MP on Recognition of Palestine 6 June Conference Tickets & Info Balfour Project Action Points for UK Government The Hamas attack of 7th October 2023 and the on-going Israeli destruction of Gaza which followed are but the latest, and most devastating, episode of cycles of…
The announcement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan KC, that he has applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister as well as three Hamas leaders over the events of 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza is a significant moment for the rule of law…
War was the Zionists’ choice in 1948, writes Balfour Project Trustee and historian John McHugo. And Israel must acknowledge its responsibility towards the Palestinians who were turned into refugees…more than 70 per cent of Palestine’s population at the time. Click here to read article in The National
Dear Trade Secretary and Foreign Secretary, Together we are urging you to immediately halt arms licences and exports to the Government of Israel. This is just one crucial step towards helping to secure a permanent and immediate ceasefire for all Palestinians and Israelis. Nowhere in Gaza is safe. The military offensive in Gaza has killed tens of thousands…
The killing of aid workers in Gaza was a wake-up call for those countries still arming Israel. But by steadfastly refusing to suspend its weapons sales, the British Government has brought shame upon us all, writes the Bishop of Southwark From The Independent 5 April 2024 Some will see the recent and tragic…
26 March 2024 Andrew Whitley, Chair of the Balfour Project The Balfour Project warmly welcomes UN Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the lifting of all restrictions on the urgent provision of humanitarian aid, at scale, to a population of 2.3 million. Starvation must never be used as a weapon…
By Andrew Whitley, Chair of Balfour Project Trustees Often an old piece of furniture is so familiar that it’s only when it is no longer there that one realises how invaluable it was – and how much it will be missed. That is the very real prospect today facing the UN agency responsible for the…
26 February 2024 By Tim Llewellyn Two Balfour Project patrons, Lord Hain and the Lord Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Christopher Chessun, spoke in the Lords on Tuesday 20 Feb, in opposition to the so-called Gove Boycott Bill, which was having its Second Reading in the House of Lords. The Bill, which the Balfour…
Our Government is wrong, says the Balfour Project Our Government has suspended future UK funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is by far the most important and effective provider of humanitarian and development assistance to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the region. UNRWA schools normally teach 500,000 children. Our Government did…
The Balfour Project welcomes the Order by the ICJ to accept jurisdiction and to issue Provisional Measures in the case brought by South Africa against Israel for breach of the Genocide Convention. We endorse the press release issued by CAABU shortly after the Court had issued its Order, and draw attention in particular to the nine demands CAABU makes in the press release for…
Background and timeline: Brigadier John Deverell CBE, former Director of Defence Diplomacy at the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), has coordinated a letter from military and foreign policy experts to UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron. It calls for the UK to work with other members of the UN Security Council to bring forward a renewed…