Palestine: The RealityThe inside story of the Balfour Declaration 1917–1938 by J.M.N. Jeffries Published: 1939, reissued 2017 Formats: Hardback, paperback ISBN: 9781911072126 £26.99 First published by Longman Green and Co. Reissued by Olive Branch Press and Skyscraper Publications. Paperback £26.99 By John McHugo Many people trying to get to grips with the Israel/Palestine conflict…
Conference Edinburgh March 2019 Gaza, under Israeli military occupation since 1967, is home to two million Palestinians. Most are there because in 1948, when Britain abandoned its Mandate for Palestine, Gaza gave refuge to Palestinians forced to flee from the fighting which erupted. For the last 12 years Israel has blockaded this strip of land.…
John McHugo Edited text of speech for the Balfour Project event The Tragedy of Gaza in Edinburgh 17 March 2018 My role is to explain why Britain carries a historic responsibility to the people of Palestine generally, to the people of Gaza in particular, and also, I must stress, to the people of Israel. I…
We are most grateful to the Times Literary Supplement for allowing us to reprint this review of The Arab Awakening, by George Antonius, published in 1938.
Peter Shambrook Being British, the 500-year-old British Empire story fills me with a mixture of pride – and pain and shame. Regarding the events of 1948, locating truth is extremely challenging, given the irreconcilable national narratives. So I come at this as a student of imperial history, and as a still-often puzzled, searcher for truth.…
A 20-page booklet is now available containing the speeches at the conference of the Balfour Project in partnership with King’s College London (see below). The booklet also includes the Balfour Centenary Declaration, which has now been signed by 141 British public figures including 83 Members of the British Parliament. Below is a 20 minute YouTube…
William M Mathew compares the work of two Jewish historians on the long-term effects of the inter-communal violence and harsh response by British forces which rocked Palestine in 1929. Part 1.
This talk was given at the Balfour Project conference in Southwark Cathedral on 5th November 2016 entitled: ‘How will we mark the Centenary of the Balfour Declaration’ By Dr Peter Shambrook Context: it is only in the context of the development of the war that all the promises/agreements that the British government made can be…
Dr. Nadia Naser-Najjab finds in Jeffries’ documentations of 1923 a significant mix of parallels and contrasts with current British attitudes and policies towards Palestine.
Given the sheer improbability of the Balfour Declaration, its source in temporary war-time contingencies, its activation of inter-communal conflict in Palestine, and its exposure to increasing opposition both at home and in the Levant, the 1917 War Cabinet pledge to Zionism was in manifest danger of collapse in the early 1920s in advance of…
By Roger Spooner In 1915 Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt, offered Sherif Hussein of Mecca an independent Arab state if he would help the British fight against the Ottoman Turks. Hussein’s interest in throwing off his Turkish overlords converged with Britain’s war aim of defeating the Ottomans. There has been much disagreement…
Peter A. Shambrook presents the history of the British Mandate for Palestine in the period 1930-1947, highlighting its very negative outcomes for the Palestinian population. In doing so, Shambrook calls for Britain to accept responsibility for its past wrongdoings as a necessary pre-requisite to making any helpful contribution to the current Palestinian/Israeli deadlock. The British…
By William M. Mathew, Senior Fellow in History, University of East Anglia Lecture given as part of the Contemporary Middle East Lecture Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies, 28 October 2014 I I should begin by briefly explaining the three-part title: “Contingency, Imperialism, and Double-Dealing” – these bearing on the one…
On Oct 13th 2014 British MPs voted in favour of recognising Palestine as a state alongside Israel. The House of Commons backed the move “as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution” The full motion stated: “That this House believes that the government should recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel…
This lecture was given by Professor Mary Grey in the URC Church, Crondall, Northumberland for their Peace and Reconciliation centre, 5th September 2014 Here in Northumberland, it is impossible to forget the bloodshed of the Battle of Flodden in 1513, not to mention centuries of border raids, preceded by Viking invasions and so on. In…
This collection of dialectical exchanges between a Jewish academic and a Catholic colleague on the troubled history of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is a dense and demanding book.
See also Contradictory Promises by Dr Peter Shambrook where these promises are explored in more detail. 1915 The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, • In 1915 Britain promised the Arabs that after the war they would be granted independence in their lands, in exchange for joining a wartime alliance against the Turks. 1917 The Balfour Declaration, • This…
Below is a part of a preface to the publication of the King-Crane Commission Report, published in Editor & Publisher, V.55, No. 27, 2nd Section, December 2, 1922. This is followed by their recommendations on Syria and particularly Zionism. The Commission was set up by President Wilson. The report was prepared in 1919 but not…
British policy towards Palestine for the past 100 years has been informed by two narratives, two visions. The first is the vision of a Jewish state in Palestine, captured in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The second is the vision of a democratic independent state in Palestine where human, political and religious freedoms were…
In 1922 (Ratified in 1923) Britain acquired from the League of Nations the Mandate to administer Palestine, which required her to implement the Balfour Declaration, and undertake a “sacred trust of civilisation” to advance the welfare of the Palestinian people and guide them to independence. ARTICLE 22 To those colonies and territories which as a…
LORD ISLINGTON had given Notice to move, That the Mandate for Palestine in its present form is inacceptable to this House, because it directly violates the pledges made by His Majesty’s Government to the people of Palestine in the Declaration of October, 1915, and again in the Declaration of November, 1918, and is, as at…
Ashley Perry, editor of the Middle East Strategic Information project makes the case that the Balfour Declaration represented the definite intention of the British Government to create a Jewish state and that in the Mandate for Palestine this intention gained international backing. On November 2, the Balfour Declaration was 91 years old. Although seemingly…
A frank recognition of its past in the Middle East can give Britain a unique role in the peace process The reprimand of Israel by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, resonated sharply in an already difficult week for Israel. But Britain can do more to influence the Middle East than register a complaint, expel a…