A message to the PM
MPs send No.10 the Balfour Project call for the strict application of international law, including via the ICC, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
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Pearson caught in Middle East history textbook scandal
Pro-Israel bias and misrepresentation of the Israel/Palestine situation has been a feature of much of mainstream media for some years. Now GCSE textbooks, published by Pearson and Hodder, have come under intense attention from pro-Israel advocates. As a result, Hodder has discontinued entirely publication of its own textbook title Conflict in the Middle East, 1945–95,…
BBC sparks outrage after removing content following pressure from pro-Israel lobby
Published in the Middle East Monitor on 2 June 2021. The BBC has removed a series of educational videos about Palestine and the origins of the ongoing Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing, following pressure from a pro-Israel lobbyist organisation, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). The videos formed part of a 7-part GCSE Bitesize series, and were intended to teach…
Why Israeli progressives have started to talk about ‘apartheid’
By Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, in The Guardian, 3 June 2021. Michael Sfard was a keynote speaker at our conference entitled ‘Israel/Palestine: in search of the rule of law’ in May 2021 and his talk can be viewed here. When I first heard this argument from Palestinians 20 years ago, I rejected…
Briefing to the 8782nd session of the Security Council, May 27, 2021
Posted May 31, 2021 by Rashid Khalidi in MR Online. The events of the last few weeks have provoked worldwide recognition of realities on the ground in Occupied Palestine, realities of systemic discrimination, of oppression, and of settler colonialism. People have responded to the images that emerged from different parts of Palestine and were diffused by social media.…
Israel, Palestine, and Law
Balfour Project statement, 26 May 2021 Equal rights under the law are the foundation stone of all democracies. Israel views itself as a democracy. But many in Israel and around the world, including in Britain, were dismayed by the Knesset’s adoption in 2018 of the discriminatory Nation State Law. This declares that the right to…
Essays on Equality, Rights and Responsibilities
Balfour Project Rule of Law Essays Booklet Post ConferenceDownload BP Rule of Law Conference BrochureDownload
Israel, Palestine and International Law
Sir Vincent Fean, Chair of the Balfour Project Trustees and former Consul-General in Jerusalem, and Professor Adam Sutcliffe, Professor of European History at King’s College, London, and member of the steering group, Independent Jewish Voices, have issued the following statement about the crisis. It comes in advance of next week’s conference, ‘Israel-Palestine: in search of…
Israeli-Palestinian peace relies on this essential truth being grasped
This piece, by John McHugo, a Balfour Project Trustee and head of its Fellowship Programme, was published by The Independent. As the dust settles on the latest Israel/Palestinian conflict, and the blood of innocents and perpetrators dries indifferently, the great fear is that no lessons will be learned. Everything can go back to “normal”. Israel’s settlement and…
Israel-Palestine: in search of the rule of law by Sir Vincent Fean in the Arab Digest
Written by Sir Vincent Fean for the Arab Digest Just when you think it can’t get any worse – it does. Déjà vu, only worse. It is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, as I used to describe it in my time as Consul-General, Jerusalem (2010-14). Today, the word ‘conflict’ hardly fits, because the Occupation is so lop-sided.…
Shameless: Ministers are now attacking our public authorities for respecting human rights in Israel and Palestine
By Richard Burden There was a time when some politicians would argue that human rights were nothing to do with business; that it was perfectly legitimate for UK companies to profit from trade with regimes overseas however badly those regimes treated their own people or neighbouring countries. The good news is that this blinkered perspective…
Instagram Censoring
I have received reports that some Instagram users in Jerusalem are facing censorship, presumably by Instagram itself, which is owned by Facebook. Palestinians have reported that recently, when they write Instagram messages about the wave of evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, their messages are recorded as having been sent – but do not…
UK-European statement condemns Israeli settlements, East Jerusalem evictions
The Governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK issued this statement on Israeli settlements on May 6. We urge the Government of Israel to reverse its decision to advance the construction of 540 settlement units in the Har Homa E area of the occupied West Bank, and to cease its policy of settlement…
UK backs Palestinian elections, including in Jerusalem, at UN Security Council
Excerpt of Statement by British Ambassador Jonathan Allen at the Security Council briefing on the Middle East on 23 April 2021 Mr President, following elections held in Israel on 24 March, we look forward to working with a new Israeli government, when it is formed. We also strongly support the forthcoming elections in the Occupied…
British activists and charities condemn PM statement
UK charities statement on the Prime Minister’s comments on the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation – 14 April 2021 We condemn the Prime Minister’s statement on the ICC’s investigation into alleged grave crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). This investigation is bringing victims, survivors and their families one step closer to justice –…
Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirms UK opposition to ICC investigation into war crimes in Palestine
The Balfour Project read with sadness and dismay the concluding words in the Prime Minister’s letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel of 9 April 2021. These words assert that “Palestine is not a sovereign State” and that the investigation by the ICC “gives the impression of being a partial and prejudicial attack on a…
‘Biased changes’ in GCSE textbooks on Middle East history
A group of academics, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, has uncovered what it describes as bias that has been introduced into British GCSE textbooks on Middle East history. BRICUP found hundreds of changes in two books published by Pearson, averaging over three alterations per page. The changes to the books were made…
The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism
The Balfour Project opposes all forms of racism, bigotry and discrimination, including antisemitism. We commend the recent Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism; one year in the making, by international scholars in antisemitism and related fields from Europe, the USA, Canada and Israel. The Declaration is intended as a response to the Working Definition on Antisemitism adopted…
Antisemitism: a defining moment
Julia Bard looks at the Jerusalem Declaration and assesses its potential to re-set the political dial Published in the Jewish Socialist, 3 August 2021 I know they said there would be no exams this year, but here’s a question just to keep you in practice. Compare and contrast these two definitions of antisemitism. Discuss them…
Palestinian peace must rest on international law
By Mary Robinson, published in The Financial Times on 15 March 2021. ICC decision to investigate Hamas and Israel has implications for both sides. BP Trustee, author and international lawyer John McHugo writes: For far too long, political leaders have shied away from calling on Israel and the Palestinians to take international law as the starting…
Working towards a two-state solution
Introduction to UK Government statement to the UN Security Council of 26 February 2021 The latest statement by the UK to the UN Security Council, at its regular meeting on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on 26 February, deserves attention – for what it said and what it omitted. Several aspects of what Ambassador Barbara Woodward had…
Requesting the UK government’s urgent intervention against the dispossession and forcible transfer of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, East Jerusalem
Letter from Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights to Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, Minister of State fo rthe Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The British Government position on Jerusalem
The British Government has now replied to the six recommendations in the Balfour Project statement “Israel-Palestine: equal rights for a lasting peace” which concluded our 27 October conference on Jerusalem. We are indebted to our patron, Rt Revd John Pritchard, for asking his MP to forward the statement to the Foreign Secretary and seek a…
Over 80 UK parliamentarians call on Israel to stop the dispossession of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, or face diplomatic consequences
Published by CAABU, 9 February 2021. Over 80 British parliamentarians representing all parties, in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, wrote in a letter to the British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab that the British government must do everything in its power to prevent the mass/forced evictions and dispossession of Palestinian families…
Church leaders call on Israel to give vaccine access to Palestinians in West Bank/Gaza
Two distinguished patrons of the Balfour Project signed the communique below from the Holy Land Coordination (HLC):Rt Revd Declan Lang, Catholic Bishop of Clifton and Chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Dept. of International Affairs andRt Revd Christopher Chessun, Anglican Bishop of Southwark and Lead Bishop for International Affairs. The HLC is a group of Catholic…
We are Israel’s largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid
By Hagai El-Ad, published in The Guardian, 12 Jan, 2021 The systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people over another is deeply immoral and must end “One cannot live a single day in Israel-Palestine without the sense that this place is constantly being engineered to privilege one people, and one people only:…
Indonesia is no saviour: against normalisation with Israel
By Gilang Al Ghifari Lukman, published on New Mandala on 11 JAN, 2021 Recent reports of potential normalisation between Indonesia and Israel have received varied reactions in the respective countries. In his three-month marathon toward normalization, U.S. President Donald Trump has persuaded four Arab countries to open diplomatic relations with Israel. With his term set…
Seeking cooperation in order to achieve a two-state solution – Ambassador Barbara Woodward
Statement by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East. Published 21 December 2020 Thank you, Mr President, and thank you to Special Coordinator Mladenov for his briefing. As others have done, I’d like to pay tribute to his tireless work in this role to de-escalate tension and…
How Israel’s Settlement-Separation Roads Speed Towards One State
The rapid integration of the settlers and their roads with pre-1967 Israel means a workable two-state solution becomes more impossible by the minute. By Ahmad Al-Bazz and Edo Konrad, published on +972 on December 31, 2020. How Israel’s road projects are ensuring apartheid is here to stay The expansion of settler bypass roads in the West Bank has been…
A scion of Zionist aristocracy wants to quit the Jewish people. Will Israel let him?
Why Avraham Burg, who has served as Knesset speaker, interim president and head of the Jewish Agency, is asking Israel to annul his registration as a Jew Ravit Hecht | Jan. 2, 2021 (From Haaretz) Avraham Burg has been a man of many titles. A scion of one of the aristocratic families of the religious-Zionist…
Former Jerusalem archbishop: How long will Catholics keep ignoring the suffering of Palestinians?
By Michel Sabbah on 22 December 2020. Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah served as the archbishop and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1987 to 2008, the first native Palestinian to hold the office for centuries. He is a co-author of the Kairos Palestine Document and a member of the Kairos Palestine board. Israel’s military occupation of…
The lost potential of Jenin
By Ahmad Al-Bazz and Sarah Abu Alrob for The Electronic Intifada, 23 October 2020. In the northern West Bank city of Jenin, there was once an airfield, a train station, three cinemas and two major roads connecting the town with the neighboring cities of Nazareth and Haifa. In 2020, only traces of these now exist and none are…
Letter from European Parliamentarians to President Elect Biden
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