Britain Palestine Project
Peace with justice, security and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians
Transcript from our ‘Peace with Justice – how to get there’ Conference in London on 6th June 2024. Since October we have been plunged back to a future we don’t want, one we were all promised would never recur. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1948 Genocide Convention, the 1948 Geneva Convention, promised not only…
Transcript from our ‘Peace with Justice – how to get there’ Conference in London on 6th June 2024. Daniel Levy Confusion reigns since President Biden gave his ceasefire speech on 31 May. The White House then issued a statement signed by a number of countries, mostly those that have nationals held hostage in Gaza. It…
6 June 2024 at Bush House KCL and online Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the conference image gallery Read about the conference in Middle East Eye and The National The people of Gaza have been subjected to a level of death, injury and destruction surpassing all previous cycles of violence, and…
1st May 2024 Watch webinar Listen to audio/podcast Andrea De Domenico brings more than twenty years of experience in humanitarian assistance and emergency relief both in the field and in headquarters. Between 1998 and 2005 he has worked in Albania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo and Pakistan with various NGOs managing humanitarian and relief…
16th April 2024 Sir Vincent Fean is a retired member of the British Diplomatic Service (DS) 1975-2014. His last post was as Consul-General, Jerusalem (2010-14). Before Jerusalem, he was Ambassador to Libya, and previously High Commissioner to Malta. Vincent advocates equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, and British Government recognition of the state of Palestine…
4th March 2024 Watch Video Listen to Audio/Podcast Nadav Tamir is the Executive Director of J Street Israel and an Advisor for International and Governmental Affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. Nadav served as the Senior Policy Adviser to the President of Israel during the last 3 years of the presidency of…
13th February 2024 Watch Recording Listen to Audio/Podcast Professor Nick Maynard trained at Oxford University, Guy’s Hospital, London, and Melbourne, Australia. He is a Consultant Upper GI Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Associate Professor of Surgery at Oxford University. He set up the Oxford Oesophagogastric Cancer Centre in 1997 and is the…
20th February 2024 with Claire Nicholl (Save the Children), Tareq Shrourou (Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights) and Jude Lanchin (solicitor). Save the Children Intro Video Watch Recording Here Listen to Recording/Podcast Here Save the Children Call to Action The military arrest, detention and prosecution of Palestinian children is a major and long‑standing human rights concern.…
16th January 2024 Daniel (Danny) Seidemann has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. He has been a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 1987. Since 1991, he has specialized in the geopolitics of contemporary Jerusalem, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the city. Danny and his colleagues founded Terrestrial Jerusalem and are frequently consulted by senior…
Online webinar hosted on 21 November 2023 In Search of the River Jordan is the new book by award-winning writer and journalist James Fergusson. Travelling through Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, Fergusson describes how historic water resources such as the Jordan River and the Dead Sea have been diverted or depleted, and how the…
28th September 2023 Watch Video Listen to Audio/Podcast The 29th of September marks the centenary of when the League of Nations ‘Mandate Agreement’ for Palestine entered into force in international law. This legal instrument purported to put the commitment to establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine made by Arthur Balfour in the eponymous Declaration of…
6 June 2023 NOTE: this webinar was not be recorded, as per EAPPI standard policy. Ann Wilson (ex CAFOD employee in the Diocese of Salford and previous chaplain of Loreto College, Manchester) returned from monitoring human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law in East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank in…
April 2023 Palestine Museum US held a Screening of our film 18-minute documentary Britain in Palestine 1917-1948, followed by Q&A discussion with Balfour Project Vice-Chair Sir Vincent Fean, a British diplomat, and Trustee John McHugo, a British historian and lawyer. Both the film and the post-screening dicussion can be viewed below.
12 April 2023 Richard Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations. John Dugard is a South African professor of international law. His main academic…
Recordings now available below Welcome – Andrew Whitley, Balfour Project Chair & Introduction to Conference—Baroness Sayeeda Warsi Click here for Audio/Podcast Keynote Speech followed by Q&A—Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Click here for Audio/Podcast Realities on the GroundSeparate & Unequal—Omar Shakir, Human Rights WatchAccess to Health—Melanie Ward, Medical Aid…
26 October 2022 Danielle Bett is Yachad’s Director of Communications. Prior to joining Yachad, Danielle worked as the Jewish Leadership Council’s Scotland Manager. She has worked on several interfaith and antiracism initiatives. She’s also worked closely with the Israeli community in Scotland, having founded the Scottish Israeli Cultural Association – a non-political non-religious initiative for…
By John McHugo Talk given at Abandoning Palestine conference, May 2022. I After the First World War, Britain wanted Palestine for its own imperial purposes: to strengthen its control of the Suez Canal, to provide a land bridge from Egypt to Iraq, and to fulfil its promise in the 1917 Balfour Declaration to facilitate the…
November 2022 Palestinian author and journalist Dr. Ramzy Baroud discusses the reasons behind Israel’s lack of accountability to international law. While many countries, especially in the Global South, are held accountable to United Nations resolutions and to international humanitarian laws, Israel remains untouched. The role of the UK, past and present. What will it take…
6pm UK time Wednesday 12th October 2022 THIS WEBINAR WAS NOT RECORDED, BUT PLEASE VIEW THE HANDY LIST OF RESOURCES PROVIDED. Thousands of Christians visit the Holy Land each year with a deep desire to “walk where Jesus walked”. But what impact do these pilgrimages have on the people who inhabit the land and on…
6pm UK time Tuesday 18th October 2022Tickets £10 If you are a Friend of the Balfour Project, meaning you are a regular giver, or if you sign up here before this event, you will receive a free link to the screening a couple of days before the event. When a news publisher in Arkansas, an…
On Saturday, 25 June, the Balfour Project hosted an online workshop to encourage more schools to teach this subject. Ninety attended, of whom 25 were practising teachers, 18 of them currently teaching the subject. Over a hundred have viewed the recording since. Three history teachers spoke of the challenges and rewards of teaching this topic…
In 1985, Raja Shehadeh’s father Aziz was murdered in a pre-meditated knife attack. The circumstances of the crime are the subject of his Strangers in the House. Today, through his new memoir, Shehadeh sheds a different light on the father-son relationship that still influences him 37 years on. We Could Have Been Friends, My Father And I is…
Tuesday 20th September at 6pm. The epic behind-the-scenes story of the United States’ 30-year effort to secure peace in the Middle East. Recounted from the unique perspective of the American mediators on the frontlines. Tickets: £10, Free for Friends of the Balfour Project! The film and the Q&A will be available for 7 days after…
Zoom Webinar, Thursday 15 September 2022 at 3pm UK time. In anticipation of the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian talks convened by the US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014, Sam Bahour and Dr Tony Klug called for a new international strategy to replace failed peace negotiations, based on a vision of the endgame and…
On Saturday, 25 June, the Balfour Project hosted an online workshop to encourage more schools to teach this subject. Ninety attended, of whom 25 were practising teachers, 18 of them currently teaching the subject. Over a hundred have viewed the recording since. Three history teachers spoke of the challenges and rewards of teaching this topic…
All views and resources are those of the Fellows and speakers alone and not necessarily representative of the Balfour Project. Culture x Conflict: Palestinian Cuisine as Anticolonial ResistanceThurs 24th November Culture x Conflict: 100 years of Palestinian Architecture
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that over 1,000 Palestinians can be forcibly evicted from their homes in Masafer Yatta, a community in the South Hebron Hills. Write to the Government to help stop this flagrant eviction of people from their home.Enter your postcode and see the letter – send it to your MP in one click!…
Lana Ramadan is the Advocacy and Campaigns Senior Office at Save the Children International oPt country office. Lana has extensive technical expertise and knowledge on the detention file in the oPt context. She worked for several Palestinian human rights organizations before joining SCI, including Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association as well as Badil…
The Collapse of the British Mandate & Why it still matters, and what Britain should do now. Welcome – Sir Vincent Fean, Chair of Day 1 and Keynote Speaker Dr Hanan Ashrawi Farewell to Palestine: a personal experience of the Nakba – Dr Ghada Karmi Click here to buy Dr Ghada Karmi’s latest book In…
Online talk given in March 2022. Ali Awad is a 22 year-old activist from the village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills. Becca Strober is a former soldier originally from Philadelphia. She is the Director of Education at Breaking the Silence. Related Links A segment, which you can watch at this link, shows what…
Online talk given in March 2022 Recording of Matthew Teller’s ‘Nine Quarters of Jerusalem’ book launch live from Jerusalem. This event was jointly organised by the Bethlehem Cultural Festival, Educational Bookshop Jerusalem and Balfour Project. Book Review: Nine Quarters of Jerusalem, a New Biography of the Old City by Matthew Teller
Online talk given in March2022 Abbas Milhem is the current Executive Director (since 2014) of the Palestinian Farmers’ Union, providing technical guidance and full supervision on project development and implementation processes for the 14 branches of the Union across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Abbas previously worked with the Sudan Civil Society and Youth…
Online talk given in February 2022 Bashir Bashir is associate professor in the department of sociology, political science and communication at the Open University of Israel and a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His primary research interests are nationalism and citizenship studies, liberalism, democratic theory, decolonization and the politics of reconciliation.…
Online talk given in February 2022 Rula Jamal LLM – Head of Monitoring and Documentation at Al-Haq Dr Susan Power – Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al-Haq In 2021, the government of Israel designated al-Haq a ‘terrorist’ organisation, a decision condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem.
Online talk given in January 2022
Online talk given in January 2022 Wafa Dakwar – Programme Manager, Beirut, Medical Aid for Palestinians Rohan Talbot – Advocacy and Campaigns Manager, London, Medical Aid for Palestinians Click here to view MAP’s position paper: Systematic Discrimination and Fragmentation Click here to download Rohan’s presentation as a PDF Click here to view the UNRWA Q&A…