Jewish Voice for Labour Introduction Israel’s treatment of its own citizens and foreign nationals who stand in solidarity with Palestinians can be vicious. Sadly too many other countries, not least the UK, USA and Germany are also clamping down on protests and other actions in support of Palestinians and in opposition to the genocide in…
In the past month, the United Kingdom has taken two notable diplomatic steps on Palestine. First, on 1 May, 2025, British lawyers in The Hague made a legal submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that echoed previous submissions and statements and strongly defended international humanitarian law in Gaza. They argued that Israel, as…
This introduction is taken from a Jewish Voice for Labour report, and the whole Commons debate was most timely, coming in the week of the BPP conference (in London, on 8 May), which dealt vociferously with this very topic Tuesday’s Middle East debate in the UK Parliament should be a watershed moment in the Starmer…
The Britain-Palestine Project (BPP) welcomes the signing of the UK-Palestine Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation[1] as an important step toward deepening the bilateral relationship. The MoU prioritises humanitarian support, democratic renewal and a renewed commitment to a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. We commend the UK’s support for humanitarian relief, adherence to…
By Dr. Victor Kattan (University of Nottingham), Sir Vincent Fean (Britain Palestine Project) and Hasan Pandar (SOAS University of London) SOAS ICOP Policy Briefings To Inform Government and Parliamentary Debates 2 May 2025 International law depends on UN Member States individually and collectively upholding it. This June ‘France is expected to align its foreign policy…
On 29 April, 2025, at the first official visit of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa to the United Kingdom, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed setting out a package of support, including more than £100m directed to humanitarian relief, support for Palestinian economic development and strengthening Palestinian Authority governance and reform. This UK funding is explicitly made to…
By Mandy Turner 21 April 2025 In many Western societies there is a very visible disjuncture in political attitudes between entrenched elite support for Israel and growing public support for Palestinian rights, which is highlighting a severe democratic deficit. This article maps this trend in Britain, the country responsible for erasing Palestine from the map…
By Hamdan Ballal 25 April 2025 From The New York Times On 2 March, I won an Academy Award for best documentary for a film I co-directed, No Other Land. It’s hard to put into words how that moment felt. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life. Three weeks later, I…
The UK Government’s approach to international law in the Israel-Palestine context By Catherine Maunder and Anna Balfour (Britain Palestine Project Fellows 2024-2025) 14 April 2025 Part One – Findings and Policy Implications Introduction The UK Government has consistently expressed public support for a two-state solution and has acknowledged key international legal principles in the Israel-Palestine…
Letter to the Financial Times, 16 April, 2025 From Harriett Goldenberg, Baron Frankal, Sophie Hasenson, Robert Stone and others We write as representatives of the British Jewish community, out of love for Israel and deep concern for its future. The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our…
By Omer Bartov The memory of the Holocaust has, perversely, been enlisted to justify both the eradication of Gaza and the extraordinary silence with which that violence has been met. From The New York Review of Books, 27 March, 2025 In 1904, the Herero people of German Southwest Africa—today’s Namibia—launched a series of attacks on…
When Macron recognises Palestine, Starmer must follow suit Labour has consistently delayed recognising a Palestinian state, despite having been elected on a manifesto pledge to do so – it is now a question of international justice and historical accountability, says Sir Vincent Fean Saturday 12 April 2025 This summer, France is expected to align its foreign…
On 13 March 2025, we formally relaunched as the Britain Palestine Project, marking a renewed commitment to advocating for justice, equality, and Britain’s responsibility in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The transition from the Balfour Project to the Britain Palestine Project reflects our mission to hold Britain accountable for its historical obligations and to push for meaningful…
Feb 2025 In this article, in Life and Work, the monthly magazine of the Church of Scotland, Jackie Macadam interviews Monica Spooner and her husband Roger, founders of the Balfour Project (now the Britain Palestine Project), about their discovery of the Balfour Declaration and its consequent injustices for the Palestinians; and about Monica’s book about it…
Lord Nicholas Soames described Britain as a ‘midwife at the birth of Israel’ and urged for a state based on 1967 borders By Imran Mulla Middle East Eye, 18 March 2025 Winston Churchill’s grandson has urged the British Government to recognise a Palestinian state, a significant intervention in British political discourse on the Middle East.…
Daniel Levy, President of the US/Middle East Project, gave this powerful and moving address to the United Nations Security Council in New York City on 25 Feb 2025, in which he set out a six-point ‘scaffolding’ for a peace plan in Palestine-Israel, and stressed that all actors—non-state, partisan resistance and full-blown state are accountable before…
Still functioning despite Israel’s ban, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief, Philippe Lazzarini, explains how the agency is laying the groundwork for future Palestinian institutions. By Ghousoon Bisharat and Meron Rapoport From +972 and Local Call 27 Feb, 2025 At the end of January, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the main humanitarian…
In just a few weeks, under cover of the war on Gaza and the tenuous ceasefire there, Israel has displaced more than 40,000 Palestinian refugees and destroyed four camps in the north of the Occupied Territories, stoking fears it seeks to erase the refugee question altogether. By Naela Khalil The New Arab, Ramallah, 18 Feb,…
30 Dec 2024 Question: What is the UK’s role in finding a resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians? The charity’s aims are educational. It sheds light on Britain’s role and responsibilities from before the 1917 Balfour Declaration through the Mandate period and up to today. It seeks to advance equal rights for Palestinians…
Balfour Project evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry Submitted 30 Dec 2024 I hope you can find time to read the evidence we have submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) inquiry into UK policy on Palestine/Israel. It is here and there is a link below, with the FAC’s permission. If you agree…
Unable to pinpoint Hamas commanders in Gaza’s tunnels, the Israeli army decimated entire residential blocks with bunker-buster bombs to crush the passages below and flood them with lethal fumes, according to an investigation by Yuval Abraham 6 Feb, 2025 From the Israeli investigative journal +972 and Local Call The Israeli army intensively bombarded residential areas…
By Richard Burden 12 Feb 2025 Last month, I wrote about the haunting photo of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya standing alone and unarmed in front of advancing Israeli tanks amid ruins around his hospital in Gaza. I called the post “What courage looks like.” Soon after the photo was taken, Dr Abu Safiya was abducted by Israeli…
By Andrew Whitley, Balfour Project Chair 10 February 2025 The Balfour Project believes that no solution proposed by the Trump administration will accord with international law, which the UK is committed to uphold The United States is essential to a just resolution in Israel/Palestine. But it has long been clear that Washington is not an…
The report British Military Collaboration with Israel (January 2025), published by the British Palestinian Committee, examines the extent of the United Kingdom’s military ties with Israel and their implications under international law. It argues that the UK’s support – through arms exports, military logistics, and intelligence cooperation – contributes to Israel’s military operations in Gaza…
By Andrew Whitley Chair, Balfour Project 30 Jan 2025 For millions of Palestinians worldwide, 30 Jan 2025 is set to become yet another painful landmark in their long struggle for self-determination. As of this date, Israel hopes to sever the umbilical cord which ties the Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homeland and, in the process,…
Below we reproduce an interview with former Israeli Diplomat Alon Liel in which he stresses the influence the UK still has in Israel and the powerful message UK recognition of Palestine would send to the Israeli government. In 2020, Alon Liel gave a talk to the Balfour Project in which he called for an end…
Cynical, unwilling, fearful: Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected this same hostage deal when the Biden administration proposed it months ago, has now been bulldozed into wide-ranging concessions. For the hostages, and for Israel, this is the only morally correct end to an unbearable saga Excerpts from an article by Amos Harel, military and defence correspondent of…
How the Balfour Project grew to be influential in helping people learn about the tragic conflict in Israel/Palestine.
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).…
Sami abu Salem is a Gaza journalist who, like most Gazan Palestinians, has been pursued with his extended family up and down the Strip by Israel’s war machine since October, 2023. Sami has reported regularly to broadcaster and film-maker Mike Joseph, and so to the Balfour Project. Earlier this week he sent this voice commentary…
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.…
Imran Mulla, of Middle East Eye, tries and fails to find any consistency in the Government’s approach to the war on Gaza and any real pressure on Israel 3 Jan 2025 Six months after Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won the general election in the United Kingdom, his Government’s approach to the war has alienated UK…
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…
The story isn’t Hamas, religion or terrorism. Rashid Khalidi, eminent historian and a pre-eminent Palestinian intellectual of our time, is convinced that the Israelis simply do not understand the conflict – living in a ‘bubble of false consciousness’. Here he talks to Haaretz reporter Itay Mashiach 30 Nov 2024 On May 1 this year, the day…
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…