By Abigail Jacobson From Jerusalem Quarterly, Issue 21 – 2004 This paper is based on parts of my larger dissertation project, which focuses on Jerusalem in the transition period between Ottoman and Mandatory rules, between the years 1912-1920. In the course of this research, I ‘met’ several figures that intrigued me, and were the inspiration…
By John McDonnell, MP Tribune 1 Oct 2026 To play a serious role in resolving the crisis in Palestine, the UK must first admit that we helped to cause it. The Israeli Foreign Minister recently published a list of 11 British MPs who will no longer be admitted to Israel, and my name was on…
By Zachary Foster 5 June 2026 In June 1967, Israel invaded and occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. During and after the war, they depopulated the Golan, Latrun, Jordan Valley, Gaza’s refugee camps and villages near Hebron, and destroyed large swaths of the Golan, Qalqiya, Tulkarem and Jerusalem. Palestinians in…
From the Nakba to Camp David is the “sequel” to our short film Britain in Palestine, continuing the story through the defining decades that shaped the conflict we see today. Drawing on archival footage and historical testimony, the film traces the period from the Nakba of 1948 through to the Camp David Accords — exploring…
An Israeli’s discovery of abandoned documents spelling out soldiers’ and officers’ personal stories of the organised massacres of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba throws new light on the Israeli army’s conduct, and is new confirmatory eye-witness and participant evidence of systemic, murderous ethnic cleansing.
Herbert Samuel, Britain’s first – and Zionist – High Commissioner in Palestine, was able to deploy the contradictions and vagaries of the Balfour Declaration to the eternal advantage of the Zionists, right from the start.
The British Government is taking a positive step by recognising the state of Palestine on 22 September at the UN General Assembly, along with France, Australia, Canada, Portugal and others. How the UK reached this point will not matter, come the day. Recognition matters, for the reasons set out in the draft below. But it…
By Erskine B Childers Published in The Spectator of 12 May 1961 The Palestine Arab refugees wait, and multiply, and are debated at the United Nations. In 13 years, their numbers have, increased from 650,000 to 1,145,000. Most of them survive only on rations from the UN agency, UNRWA. Their subsistence has already cost £110,000,000.…
by Tawfiq Al-Ghussein6 August 2025 Ownership of the Western Wall in Jerusalem was definitively adjudicated in December 1930 by an international Commission appointed by the British Government with the approval of the League of Nations. Known in historical literature as the International Commission for the Wailing Wall, this body was composed entirely of eminent non-Arab,…
A talk at the Round Table workshop on the Middle East. Initiatives of Change International, Forum on Democracy, Caux, Switzerland. By Peter Shambrook 11 July 2025 I owe Caux a huge debt. My visit here as a student some 56 years ago marked me profoundly and changed my direction in life. It led eventually to…
As a charity dedicated to equal rights, justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians, and education about Britain’s historical legacy in Palestine, the BPP calls on the UK Government to live up to its obligations under international law, including under the 1948 Genocide Convention. Below we outline a series of measures that the Government could…
11 July 2025 In the following article, reprinted from Arab Digest, and written by an unnamed author, it is argued that Ibn Saud, the founder and first King of Saudi Arabia (1932-1953) consistently prioritised relations with Britain and the United States of America over the Palestinian cause, influencing the end of the Great Arab Revolt…
Avi Shlaim places Israel’s policy towards the Gaza Strip under an uncompromising lens. Israel has gone beyond land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing to commit the crime of all crimes – genocide.
Even before the British Mandate for Palestine and the Balfour Declaration, British intervention in the Holy Land was laying the foundations for Israel’s occupation, with consequences that reverberate today By Gabriel Polley 23 March 2023 Twenty twenty two marked the centenary of the British Mandate for Palestine, which formalised Britain’s presence in the Holy Land after the First World…
On January 9th 2024, an engaging event took place at Greencoat Place, hosted by Initiatives of Change (IofC UK) in collaboration with the Balfour Project. Peter Shambrook, the author of ‘Policy of Deceit’, was the central figure of the evening, which delved deep into the historical intricacies and current realities of the conflict between Israel…
7 Oct, 2022 The UK government is being urged to make a formal apology for alleged war crimes by British troops in historical Palestine nearly a century ago. The petition, along with 300 pages of evidence, is being brought by an elderly Palestinian – a former politician – who was shot and wounded by UK…
Published in The Tablet 16 December 2023 issue. Peace in Israel/Palestine will not be reached until each side understands the legitimate rights of the other – and stops interpreting facts to advocate its own story By JOHN McHUGO Facts are sacred, including historical facts, so how did such strikingly different narratives to the story of…
Mark Seddon: Today British Parliamentarians wrote to PM Rishi Sunak calling for a ceasefire. What did the letter say? Sir Vincent Fean: The letter is signed by around about 120 members of Parliament in both houses: Peers and members of the House of Commons. It was the initiative of Baroness Shas Sheehan, Liberal Democrat. I’ll…
Britain, Palestine and a history of broken promises: a summary of the book’s narrative, with links to reviews and an interview with the author.
By Mike Scott-Baumann The Commission was appointed by Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner for Palestine, to inquire into, and report on, the “disturbances” in Jaffa and elsewhere in early May 1921. It was headed by Sir Thomas Haycraft, the Chief Justice of Palestine, assisted by Mr Luke, the Assistant Governor of Jerusalem, and Mr Stubbs of…
By Raja Shehadeh The brief history I present here about the relations between Britain and Palestine is selective. I focus on events in which my father, Aziz Shehadeh, played a role. Much of what I will cover in this talk is taken from my new book, which is about my father and his political involvements,…
Martin A. Smith Origins and background Though little-remembered today, the 1919 Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey, more popularly known as the King-Crane Commission after its two co-chairs, was the first and one of the most important of the 21 commissions or committees of inquiry that were sent to Palestine over the three-decade period beginning…
By John McHugo, Mike Scott-Baumann and Peter Shambrook Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land nor occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem, and no UN resolution will twist this historical truth”. He has also asserted, in a recent interview, that the Jews are the indigenous…
By Mike Scott-Baumann The Report of the Palin Commission (or Court) of Inquiry, 1920 The Commission was established in May, 1920, to examine the reasons for the Jerusalem [‘Nebi Musa’] riots of April, 1920, and “the extent and causes of racial feelings that at present exist in Palestine”. Its three members were all senior military officers. The…
Introduction by Avi Shlaim for the Balfour Project to his paper in The Journal of Palestine Studies From 1920 to 1948 Britain held the mandate over Palestine. From the beginning, Britain pursued a pro-Zionist policy which facilitated the Zionist takeover of Palestine. The cornerstone of mandatory policy was to deny representative institutions until the Jews…
1901 Keren Kayemeth [Jewish National Fund] founded as land-acquisition organ of WZO; land acquired by JNF in Palestine to be inalienably Jewish, and exclusively Jewish labour to be employed on it. 1903 Lloyd George’s law firm acted for Herzl in negotiations on a Jewish community in Uganda. Lloyd George drafted a charter for the ‘Jewish…
By Alexander Schloch As the Ottoman Empire began to open to European penetration, between 1831 and 1840, the various Powers, including the British, strengthened their presence in Palestine and their footholds in the empire by establishing diplomatic missions and setting up religious missions supporting particular minorities. Well before the establishment in strength of the Zionist…
Early 1800s Literal reading of the Bible, which had started in the 1600s, develops further, influenced by John Nelson Darby, Edward Irvine and Prophetic Conferences such as those in Albury. 1840 Lord Shaftesbury, best remembered for legislation on child labour and mental health issues but less for his form of evangelical Christianity, takes an advert…
66-70 Romans suppress a major Jewish revolt and the Temple is destroyed. The conquering Roman general, Vespasian, became emperor. 132-135 The Bar Kokba revolt. Jews barred from entering Jerusalem. The Romans name the province Syria Palaestina. Jews move North into Galilee, being banned from Jerusalem 312 Edict of Milan. Constantine begins the process of Christianising…
Early History Before the Common Era 2000-1500 BCE Re-establishment of strong political power in Egypt with advent of the Middle Kingdom led to revitalisation and expansion of trade routes and a period of great prosperity in the Levant. It witnessed the full flowering of Canaanite culture. The situation was further enhanced when, around 1750 BC,…
By William M. Mathew. A. INTRODUCTION: A JEWISH ITINERARY B. NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS – PALESTINE C. NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS – SYRIA (AND HOME) D. CONCLUSION: THE ARAB PRESENCE E. END NOTE BIBLIOGRAPHY A. INTRODUCTION: A JEWISH ITINERARY Arthur Balfour`s visit to Palestine in the spring of 1925 came at the invitation of the…
Speech given at Middle Temple Hall, 2 July 2021 It is great to be here to celebrate the centenary of the Palestine Police so energetically organised by Ralph Cairns. I wish the BPPA many happy returns. The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted for almost a century, but crusader times which were very different from our…
Neither Pro-Zionist nor Pro-Arab but Pro-Empire A Reassessment of British Policy in the Palestine Mandate Eugene Rogan is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University, where he has taught since 1991, a Fellow of St Antony’s College and Director of the Middle East Centre. He took his B.A. in economics from Columbia, and…
House of Lords, 21 June 1922 By William M Mathew Contents PART IPART IIPART III PART I On 21 June 1922, following his elevation to the peerage a few weeks earlier, Arthur Balfour – now the Earl of Balfour – delivered his maiden speech to the House of Lords, this in response to a…
How the Zionists hitched a ride on the Imperialist bandwagon By William M Mathew It was fundamental folly to annex Palestine out of persistent anxieties over imperial, notably Indian, security, while at the same pursuing therein a policy of Zionist settlement that, through resulting ethnic conflict, served to render the territory almost useless as an…
It is no exaggeration that the history of Israel/Palestine for the last hundred years has turned on the seminal Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Loved and loathed in equal measure, this was the letter that changed the future. The following extract of the Balfour Declaration from the ‘Companion Guide’ to the Balfour Project film, ‘Britain…