Britain Palestine Project
Peace with justice, security and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians
UN leaders speak reason in the midst of madness By Andrew Whitley, Balfour Project Chair of Trustees In the midst of so much madness, misrepresentation and moral equivocation, it can be hard to find voices of sanity and reason. One voice we recommend is that of the United Nations. Secretary-General, Antόnio Guterres. We commend the…
Video published by The Middle East Eye on 25 September 2023. The United Kingdom played a pivotal role in the dispossession of the Palestinian people and the Zionist takeover of historical Palestine, says Middle Eastern historian Peter Shambrook. Speaking with Middle East Eye Columnist Peter Oborne, Shambrook says that British policymakers reneged on their pledge…
By Daniel Levy, 13 Sept 2023 September 13, 2023, marks the 30-year anniversary of the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles (DOP) on the White House South Lawn. What seemed like an auspicious moment in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and indeed in moving beyond conflict, followed months of intense Norwegian- hosted back-channel…
By Peter Oborne From Middle East Eye The anti-BDS Bill trashes the UK’s global reputation, yet Sunak’s morally broken government is pushing it through without serious scrutiny. On 11 and 12 Sept, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly received a hero’s welcome from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he visited Israel on a mission to…
Evidence Submitted to House of Commons Committee on the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Public Bill, 5 September 2023 With a host of other pressing matters, domestic and foreign, already on its plate, puzzlingly the Sunak government has chosen to pursue a murky piece of legislation ponderously entitled the Economic Activity of Public…
Open letter calls on Jewish leaders to speak out against ‘ultimate purpose’ of PM’s judicial reforms – upholding ‘regime of apartheid’ by Chris McGreal, published in The Guardian on 15 August 2023 Hundreds of Israeli and American public figures have called on US Jewish groups to speak out against the occupation of the Palestinian territories…
By Sir Vincent Fean The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill was heavily mauled in debate in the House of Commons on 3 July, particularly in this excellent speech by Conservative MP Alicia Kearns (Chair of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee). Balfour Project chair Andrew Whitley had written to Sir Keir Starmer urging…
Report by Francesca Albanese Sir Vincent Fean, Balfour Project trustee, writes: Francesca Albanese is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). She studies developments and reports regularly to the UN Human Rights Council, of which the UK is a member. To see her latest report (21 pages) please click…
Sir Vincent Fean writes: Last year the UN General Assembly voted to request that the International Court of Justice should deliver an advisory opinion which would consider the question of the legality of the Israeli military occupation of East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank and Gaza. The occupation is now in its 56th…
Sir Vincent Fean writes: There are over forty British volunteer friendship and twinning groups with Palestine, from Dundee to Camden, from Sheffield to Bradford on Avon. To see the full list, please visit www.twinningwithpalestine.net, the attractive website of the Britain Palestine Friendship and Twinning Network. The groups are diverse. Some link a community here with…
While the government can rely on national-religious identity to mobilise supporters, the opposition’s counternarrative suffers a serious weakness By Menachem Klein on 24 July 2023. This article originally appeared in the Israeli +972 magazine The brewing “civil war” we are witnessing in Israel is not a flashing spectacle, but rather a long-running process. Contrary to how…
Sir Vincent Fean writes: The Balfour Project commends a new report by Save the Children on the plight of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. Please click here to read the report. The report results from sustained, careful research. It builds on Save the Children’s 2020 report: “Defenceless: the impact of Israel’s Military Detention on…
Sir Vincent Fean writes: Every month, the UN Security Council discusses developments in the Middle East, including Palestine/Israel. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the UK makes a statement at each session. The latest statement can be found here and is reproduced below. Remarkably, the 27 July statement condemns Israeli Government policy on…
By Andrew Whitley Often it requires taking a break away from a situation to be able to observe more distinctly dramatic changes taking place; changes that might otherwise pass unnoticed to a day-to-day observer. That was the case for The Elders, the global group established by Nelson Mandela. Madiba cared deeply about the injustice suffered…
By Ian Portman, 22 June, 2023 In May this year, Palestinians were preparing for their 75th commemoration events marking the Nakba (disaster) which overcome their land before and during the 1948 war. Starting in the autumn of 1947, colonial settler Zionist forces drove out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, committing massacres of civilians and other…
30 June 2023 Dear Sir Keir, Economic Activities of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill: If Labour’s “reasoned amendment” is voted down in Parliament on Monday, please vote against the Bill I write on behalf of the trustees of the Balfour Project charity, dedicated to raising awareness in Britain of our role in Palestine before the…
Following their visit to Israel and and Palestine, Mary Robinson and Ban Ki-moon warn that a ‘one-state reality’ is now rapidly extinguishing the prospect of a two-state solution. The Chair and Deputy Chair of The Elders today warned that a ‘one-state reality’ is now rapidly extinguishing the prospect of a two-state solution foreseen in the 1993 Oslo Accords to bring peace and…
The European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) has launched (June 6. 2023) its new report “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism – Violating the Rights to Freedom of Expression and Assembly in the European Union and the UK”. The report is the first case-based account of human rights violations resulting from…
By Richard Burden, Trustee This week, the UK Government has published a Bill that will both jettison Britain’s respect for international laws that ban the acquisition of territory by conquest and ignore UN rules signed by the UK over a decade ago calling on businesses to ensure their commercial dealings abroad uphold human rights. The…
5 January 2023 Statement by British Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on situation in the Middle East Firstly, the UK recognises that Jerusalem’s holy sites including Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount hold particular significance for many around the globe, especially the three Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In that context,…
Mostafa Mohamed 8 December 2022 Headed to the quarter-finals after an unprecedented run, the North African team has come to represent something bigger than football After a tense two hours, Morocco defeated Spain in a penalty shootout on Tuesday to seal their historic passage to the World Cup quarter-finals. The Atlas Lions have become the…
From player demonstrations to unfurled flags, Palestinian struggle has been visible and fearless at the World Cup. By Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff When Morocco defeated Spain in a penalty shootout, advancing to the quarterfinals of the Qatar 2022 men’s World Cup, players celebrated by posing for their victory photos with a Palestinian flag. This…
20th December 2022 Omar Karmi, a Palestinian-British journalist, and Tamir Sorek, an expert on football in Palestine-Israel, discuss the Palestinian phenomenon at the 2022 World Cup, the reactions worldwide, and the game and players in Israel-Palestine. Video Audio Transcript Omar Karmi: Good afternoon, everyone. Let me please first thank you for the opportunity to speak…
…for the Palestinians! How the World Cup put Palestine in the international spotlight. Palestine: The Unexpected Star of the 2022 World Cup Joy, faith and Palestine: How Morocco’s team united the Arab world Israel scores own goal with World Cup charm offensive WEBINAR: Palestine’s World Cup triumph
Mark Seddon of Deep Dive Palestine is live with Andrew Whitley, founder & executive director of Geo-Political Advisory Services (GPAS) & Chair of the Balfour Project. Andrew has had an expansive career first as a journalist for the BBC & Financial Times, before serving as the New York Director of UNRWA & then as Policy…
Statement by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on the Situation in the Middle East, Nov 28, 2022 ‘The UK is gravely concerned by increasing instability in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Since 14 November, four Israelis have lost their lives in terror attacks in the city of Ariel and in Jerusalem,…
The United Nations General Assembly Fourth Committee (on Decolonisation) has voted 98-17 on a resolution to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on whether Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal on the grounds that its duration (more than 55 years) makes it a de facto annexation. The resolution also asked…
Letter to UK Foreign Secretary from 27 international law experts says ‘there is nothing to review’ by Professor Iain GM Scobbie, Chair of Public International Law, and Director of the Manchester International Law Centre, University of Manchester
Britain’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has dropped the idea of “reviewing” the location of the UK Embassy in Israel, as suggested by his predecessor Liz Truss. Her proposal was to consider moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would have recognised Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. A spirited campaign…
Andrew Whitley, Chair of the Balfour Project, writes: A brand-new report from a UN Commission of Inquiry into grave breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law in Palestine and Israel will present a moral (and legal) dilemma for the new British Prime Minister. In the view of the Balfour Project, though, it presents an…
14 October 2022, Financial Times The Financial Times, with its long record of incisive Middle East reporting and careful editorial judgment, has added its voice to those urging the British Prime Minister to reconsider her stated inclination to review the question of whether the British mission to Israel should be moved to Jerusalem.
The Balfour Project was established by Roger and Monica Spooner following a visit to Jordan in 2008. They visited an exhibition of the McMahon-Hussein correspondence in Aqaba and learned that in 1915 Britain had promised the Arabs a state which would stretch across the Near East including Palestine, in return for a military alliance against…
The Balfour Project comments that Israel inherited, deployed after 1948 and still deploys, in the occupied Palestinian territory. many of the British defence emergency regulations, including arrest without trial, military courts house demolitions, armed attacks against civilian targets and the use of Palestinians as human shields. The Balfour Project welcomes the report by Tom Bateman…
Britain’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has dropped the idea of “reviewing” the location of the UK Embassy in Israel, as suggested by his predecessor Liz Truss. Her proposal was to consider moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would have recognised Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. A spirited campaign…
By William Law Published in the Arab Digest, a subscription newsletter which can be joined here. Arab Digest provides high quality information, a discerning news filter and expert analysis suitable for business leaders, diplomatic strategy, academia and journalism. Summary: the prime minister has told her Israeli counterpart that she is reviewing the UK’s position on…
Prime Minister Liz Truss has told the Israeli Prime Minister that she will ‘review’ the location of HM Embassy to Israel. Below is a well-argued letter to our Foreign Secretary explaining why this would be wrong. The letter is written by two eminent Canadian lawyers. Please consider forwarding their letter to your MP asking them…