Book review: In Search of the River Jordan by James Fergusson
Fergusson gives voice to the fears and aspirations of the region’s inhabitants and highlights the centrality of water in negotiating future peace.
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Book review: Policy of Deceit, Britain and Palestine, 1914–1939
The untold story of Britain’s role in the Israel–Palestine conflict. Shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards 2025.
Peter Shambrook’s Policy of Deceit
On the centenary of the Palestine Mandate, Peter Shambrook reveals the truth of how the Israel–Palestine conflict was born in Britain.
Book review: Palestinians and Israelis, A Short History of Conflict
In this comprehensive and stimulating overview, Middle East expert Michael Scott-Baumann charts its history from the late nineteenth century to the present day.
Book review: Three Worlds, Memoirs of an Arab-Jew
Weaving together the personal and the political, Three Worlds offers a fresh perspective on Arab-Jews, caught in the crossfire of Zionism and nationalism.
KEYS: A Troubled Inheritance Podcast
An epic journey to uncover a Holocaust inheritance leads relentlessly to discovering a Nakba inheritance: two catastrophes that are very different, but very connected. Can they both be heard and understood? With personal testimony, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is dramatised and narrated by…
Interactive Resources
Interactive Encyclopaedia of PalestineCreated by the Institute for Palestine Studies and the Palestinian Museum, this bilingual platform traces the history of modern and contemporary Palestine through event analysis, biographies, maps and primary documents. Palestine Re-Mix A digital tool rooted in Al Jazeera documentary footage which enables users to explore the modern history of Palestine and…
Reports
Al Haq Annual Field Report on Human Rights Violations in 2022Al Haq Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories 2022Amnesty International Not a “Vibrant Democracy” This is Apartheid 2022B’tselem (The Israel Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) A Threshold Crossed Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution 2021Human Rights Watch The…
Review – Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestinian Solidarity, by Hil Aked
Tim Llewellyn reviews a forensically researched account of the activities of Israel’s advocates in Britain.
An Eye Witness account of my time as an Ecumenical Accompanier in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
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…
The United Nations and Palestine: Stranded Between Promise and Performance with Richard Falk, John Dugard and Michael Lynk
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…
A Palestinian journey from homeland to exile and back
‘Stranger in My Own Land’ chronicles a desperate, at times surreal, search for a homeland between the Galilee, the West Bank and the diaspora.
In conversation with Ambassador (rtd.), State of Israel Ilan Baruch and Former Director of Israeli Affairs, State of Palestine Ashraf Al-Ajrami
with Balfour Project chair Andrew Whitley 8 March 2023 Ambassador (ret.) Ilan Baruch is chairperson of the Policy Working Group (PWG), an Israeli advocacy team focusing on policy issues pertaining to the achievement of peace between Israel and Palestine based on the two-state paradigm. PWG members are all volunteers and come from senior diplomatic, academic,…
How Palestine was ‘disappeared’ by Britain, Jordan and the Zionists
We are republishing this review of ‘Collusion Across the Jordan’ (1988), the first book to demonstrate conclusively that in 1947–8, Britain, Jordan and the Zionists worked to ensure there would be no Palestinian state.
Inventing the new antisemitism
Israel and its acolytes have long pushed the agenda that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Jewish racism. A new book shows how this endeavour came at the expense of Palestinians and diaspora Jews alike.
2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability
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…
Matthew Hughes – British Pacification in Mandate Palestine, 1936–39
Thursday 23rd February 2023 Matthew Hughes is Chair in military history at Brunel University London. His most recent book Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: the British Army, the Colonial State and the Arab Revolt, 1936-39 came out with Cambridge University Press in 2019. He is currently working on a project examining British military force on Borneo at the…
Matthew Teller – Jerusalem and the British: 200 turbulent years
March 2023 Matthew Teller’s “Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City” (Profile Books, 2022) was named a Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph. Matthew writes for the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, Financial Times and other global media. He has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and World…
Chronicler of Palestine – Raja Shehadeh webinar
Author Raja Shehadi in conversation with journalist Tim Llewellyn about his new book We Could Have Been Friends my Father and I . January 2023 Raja Shehadeh is a lawyer and writer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books published by Profile Books…
Mandate Social History workshops for A-Level students
by Ross Plowman and Ethan Hadad Developing on the groundwork set out by last year’s Late Ottoman history workshops, we have created a source-based workshop on the British mandate of Palestine. We will deliver these workshops to Year 12 students looking to expand their skill set for their final A-level year and boost their personal…
Humanising Palestinians in Anglo-Jewish Contexts
by Nicole Munson, Joel Stokes, Joe Haidar and Adnan Mahmud Storytelling has long been utilized by humans to keep histories alive and to preserve cultural identities. Although sometimes a source of conflict, storytelling has also been an effective tool for cross-community communication. The ability to create, keep, modify, and retell stories is unique to humans,…
Book review: How the PLO dropped the ball during the Oslo process
Jerome Segal describes in detail how the PLO Declaration of Independence was composed less than a year after the outbreak of the first Intifada, by whom and for what purpose.
Book review: We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I by Raja Shehadeh
A subtle psychological portrait of the author’s relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rights.
Workshop on teaching the history of Israel-Palestine in schools
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…
The Human Factor followed by Q&A with the director Dror Moreh
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…
A Palestinian state now or equal rights until there is a solution
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…
Education Workshop: Israel-Palestine in secondary schools & having the confidence to teach it
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…
Book review: A City in Fragments, Urban Text in Modern Jerusalem, by Yair Wallach
Looking at the writing of – and literally on – Jerusalem, Wallach offers a new reading of the Israel/Palestine conflict through its material culture.
Urgent: halt evictions in Masafer Yatta with and Breaking the Silence’s Becca Strober
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!…
Defenceless: Palestinian children in Israeli military detention
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…
Abandoning Palestine: the end of the British Mandate and our continuing responsibility – 17/18 May 2022
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…
Live Literature: Palestine and Israel
by Emily Abdeni-Holman and Salma Altabari The live literature reading project provides online guides for conducting live literature reading groups in relation to Palestine and Israel. These guides aim to facilitate bringing people together to discuss Palestinian and Israeli literature. The general method is reading aloud together in a group for up to an hour. The…
People live here: the 918 firing zone and threat of expulsion with local activist Ali Awad and Breaking the Silence’s Becca Strober
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…
Nine Quarters of Jerusalem Book Launch
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
Book review: Nine Quarters of Jerusalem, a New Biography of the Old City by Matthew Teller
An evocation of place through story, led by the voices of Jerusalemites.
Abbas Milhem on Palestinian agriculture under occupation
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…