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…
DetailsSir Vincent Fean writes: Last year the UN General Assembly voted to request that the International Court of Justice should deliver an advisory opinion which would consider the question of the legality of the Israeli military occupation of East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank and Gaza. The occupation is now in its 56th…
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On the centenary of the Palestine Mandate, Peter Shambrook reveals the truth of how the Israel–Palestine conflict was born in Britain.
DetailsSir Vincent Fean writes: There are over forty British volunteer friendship and twinning groups with Palestine, from Dundee to Camden, from Sheffield to Bradford on Avon. To see the full list, please visit www.twinningwithpalestine.net, the attractive website of the Britain Palestine Friendship and Twinning Network. The groups are diverse. Some link a community here with…
DetailsWhile the government can rely on national-religious identity to mobilise supporters, the opposition’s counternarrative suffers a serious weakness By Menachem Klein on 24 July 2023. This article originally appeared in the Israeli +972 magazine The brewing “civil war” we are witnessing in Israel is not a flashing spectacle, but rather a long-running process. Contrary to how…
DetailsBy Ben Lynfield, published 29 July 2023 on Plus 61J Media The religious Right wants Jewish supremacism, the liberal Left wants democracy. The war could yet turn violent, political scientist Menachem Klein tells Ben Lynfield. Could there be a civil war in Israel? That question is on the minds of many Israelis, including President Isaac…
DetailsSir Vincent Fean writes: The Balfour Project commends a new report by Save the Children on the plight of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. Please click here to read the report. The report results from sustained, careful research. It builds on Save the Children’s 2020 report: “Defenceless: the impact of Israel’s Military Detention on…
DetailsSir Vincent Fean writes: Every month, the UN Security Council discusses developments in the Middle East, including Palestine/Israel. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the UK makes a statement at each session. The latest statement can be found here and is reproduced below. Remarkably, the 27 July statement condemns Israeli Government policy on…
DetailsBy Andrew Whitley Often it requires taking a break away from a situation to be able to observe more distinctly dramatic changes taking place; changes that might otherwise pass unnoticed to a day-to-day observer. That was the case for The Elders, the global group established by Nelson Mandela. Madiba cared deeply about the injustice suffered…
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In this comprehensive and stimulating overview, Middle East expert Michael Scott-Baumann charts its history from the late nineteenth century to the present day.
DetailsBy 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,…
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Weaving together the personal and the political, Three Worlds offers a fresh perspective on Arab-Jews, caught in the crossfire of Zionism and nationalism.
DetailsAn 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…
DetailsBy Ian Portman, 22 June, 2023 In May this year, Palestinians were preparing for their 75th commemoration events marking the Nakba (disaster) which overcome their land before and during the 1948 war. Starting in the autumn of 1947, colonial settler Zionist forces drove out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, committing massacres of civilians and other…
Details30 June 2023 Dear Sir Keir, Economic Activities of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill: If Labour’s “reasoned amendment” is voted down in Parliament on Monday, please vote against the Bill I write on behalf of the trustees of the Balfour Project charity, dedicated to raising awareness in Britain of our role in Palestine before the…
DetailsInteractive 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…
DetailsAl 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…
DetailsFollowing their visit to Israel and and Palestine, Mary Robinson and Ban Ki-moon warn that a ‘one-state reality’ is now rapidly extinguishing the prospect of a two-state solution. The Chair and Deputy Chair of The Elders today warned that a ‘one-state reality’ is now rapidly extinguishing the prospect of a two-state solution foreseen in the 1993 Oslo Accords to bring peace and…
DetailsFirst and foremost, we hope people will learn more about Britain’s historic role in Palestine and the legacy of its involvement. Our website is a great place to start. Become a Friend of the Balfour Project through regular giving, however small, to support our advocacy and education activities and Peace Advocacy Fellowship programme. See the…
DetailsThe European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) has launched (June 6. 2023) its new report “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism – Violating the Rights to Freedom of Expression and Assembly in the European Union and the UK”. The report is the first case-based account of human rights violations resulting from…
DetailsBy Richard Burden, Trustee This week, the UK Government has published a Bill that will both jettison Britain’s respect for international laws that ban the acquisition of territory by conquest and ignore UN rules signed by the UK over a decade ago calling on businesses to ensure their commercial dealings abroad uphold human rights. The…
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Tim Llewellyn reviews a forensically researched account of the activities of Israel’s advocates in Britain.
DetailsMartin 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…
Details6 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…
DetailsPublished 21 March 2023 Signed at One Carlton Gardens, London, on 21 March 2023 For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Of the State of Israel For the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Vision The bilateral relationship has never been stronger. Our two countries complement each…
DetailsApril 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.
DetailsNetanyahu and Sunak – Letter in The Times, 28 March 2023 On Friday Rishi Sunak welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu, and stressed the importance of upholding shared “democratic values, including in the proposed judicial reforms in Israel”. Mr Netanyahu went home and sacked his Defence Minister for opposing those reforms, which demolish the checks and balances protecting…
Details12 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…
DetailsMike Scott-Baumann – Chair Mike Scott-Baumann is a graduate of Cambridge University and has an MA in Palestine Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He has thirty-five years’ experience as a history teacher and lecturer. He has written on the history of Israel/Palestine for students of GCSE and A Level…
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‘Stranger in My Own Land’ chronicles a desperate, at times surreal, search for a homeland between the Galilee, the West Bank and the diaspora.
DetailsBy Michael Lynk In his eloquent 2012 memoir, Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, wrote that the failure of the U.N. to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East was a deep internal wound as old as the organisation itself. In his words, it has been “a painful and festering sore…
DetailsBy Menachem Klein (reprinted from the US journal LOGOS*) The death of Faisal Husseini, the senior Palestinian leader in East Jerusalem, in May, 2001, and Israel’s order to close the Orient House, the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem, in August of that year, left East Jerusalemites without local leadership. The leadership vacuum that Israel carefully maintains…
DetailsBy Menachem Klein (reprinted from LOGOS*) This is a much-extended and updated version of a previously published article.[1] Israel’s November, 2022, election results, which led to the establishment of a far right coalition with radical settlers occupying key positions in the ministries of finance, defence and home security, surprised many on the left and the centre.…
Detailswith 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,…
DetailsAs you may have read or heard, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government is advancing large-scale plans to build many new settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These are being done in defiance of commitments made to the Biden Administration and other friendly governments, including the UK. If they go…
DetailsPatronsTrusteesExecutive CommitteeProgramme Officers The Board of Trustees holds ultimate authority within the Balfour Project, under the regulations of the OSCR. An Executive Committee organises and manages the day-to-day work of the charity, either directly or through delegation from the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees meets quarterly. Trustees serve a three-year term, which is…
DetailsRichard Burden Richard Haines Burden is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield (1992-2019). He served as Shadow Transport Minister (2013-2016) and (2016-2017). The Rt Revd Dr Michael Doe – Secretary The Rt Revd Dr Michael Doe is Preacher to Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court, and Assistant…
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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.
DetailsOccupied Palestinian Territories: Volume 829: debated on Monday 27 March 2023 Asked by Baroness Janke (Lib Dem) To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) the recent transfer of governance powers in parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories from Israeli military authorities to Israeli civilian ministries, and (2) the implications of…
DetailsJerusalem, Jan 30, 2023, issued by the Office of the European Union Representative (West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA) Representatives of Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, the EU, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland the UK and like-minded missions today visited the Palestinian community of Khan Al Ahmar to express their…
DetailsBy 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…
DetailsBy 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…
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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.
DetailsRecordings 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…
Details19 January 2023 in The Ambassador Partnership By Sir Vincent Fean A team in the UK Foreign Office deals with the Middle East Peace Process, also known as Israel/Palestine. Problem: there is no Process, and no Peace. There is increasing injustice and violence. Our country has a role to play, given our historic responsibilities in…
DetailsUK Statement at the UN Security Council, 18 Jan 2023 Last year saw large numbers of Palestinians and Israelis killed, worsening rates of settler violence, and the emergence of new Palestinian militant groups. Unfortunately, 2023 has also started with violence and instability. In this context, the UK Minister of State, Lord Ahmad, visited Israel and…
DetailsThursday 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…
DetailsMarch 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…
DetailsAuthor 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…
Details5 January 2023 Statement by British Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on situation in the Middle East Firstly, the UK recognises that Jerusalem’s holy sites including Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount hold particular significance for many around the globe, especially the three Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In that context,…
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