Category Archives: Perspectives

A calamitous promise

Posted on October 23, 2017 by admin

The Guardian’s Long Read of 17 October was headlined ‘Britain’s calamitous promise’. Author Ian Black writes ‘The brief document that bears Balfour’s name is seen as marking the beginning of what is today widely considered the world’s most intractable conflict.’ … Continue reading →

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Calls for Acknowledgement of Britain’s Role

Posted on October 13, 2017 by admin

Nicholas Frayling in the Church Times: British responsibility for the contradictions in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute gives the UK a duty to right a wrong,  A policy of 1917 whose legacy needs addressing. Donald Macintyre in the Guardian Oct 13th ‘A … Continue reading →

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The Balfour Declaration: 100 Years On.

Posted on October 7, 2017 by admin

At this 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which arrives on November 2nd many  events, looking at the century of conflict the Declaration has lead to, are taking place around the country. One major one on October 31st at Methodist Central  … Continue reading →

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Different ways of seeing the Balfour Declaration – BBC Radio 4 “Sunday” 1st October 2017

Posted on October 1, 2017 by admin

“The BBC Radio Four ‘Sunday’ programme on October 1st included this very fair and balanced report on the forthcoming centenary of the Balfour Declaration.   Chris Rose from the Amos Trust, speaking about the unfulfilled promises to the Palestinian people, echoed … Continue reading →

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Palestine 1917-2017: Reflections on a refugee’s story, my great-grandfather’s war diary and the legacy of Britain’s actions in Palestine.

Posted on September 1, 2017 by admin

Omah Amarah is 84 years old. From the amount of energy which sparks up as he gets started on his story you can sense his tale comes from the heart; this is no dry text book account of history we … Continue reading →

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The 1929 Palestine Riots: A Conflicted Jewish Historiography,

Posted on July 21, 2017 by admin

By William M Mathew Violence in Palestine in 1929 has influenced the conflict ever since. William Mathew offers us the chance not only to learn more about those events, but also to reflect on the business of history and the … Continue reading →

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Part II The 1929 Palestine Riots: A Conflicted Jewish Historiography

Posted on July 21, 2017 by admin

By William M Mathew IV: Commissions & Reports; White Paper & Letter These, 1929-31 – from Shaw and Hope Simpson to Passfield and MacDonald – have been cited in the opening paragraph above. Hillel Cohen`s approach is merely to list … Continue reading →

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Unfinished business? Seeking peace through the door of justice in the Holy Land

Posted on June 23, 2017 by admin

Read the article by The Very Revd Nicholas Frayling, Dean Emeritus of Chichester,  on Unfinished Business  in the Pax Christi newsletter of June – July  2017

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Mahatma Gandhi and the Wounds of History: Palestine, India and the British Empire in the 20th century

Posted on March 2, 2017 by admin

Professor Rajmohan Gandhi,   Committee Room 14,  in the House of Commons, London,  18th April 2017 The British Parliament does not often hear an Asian perspective on the Middle East. The very term ‘Middle East’ is Europe-centred; in India the region … Continue reading →

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The Balfour Declaration

Posted on November 13, 2016 by admin

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 … Continue reading →

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Palestine and Britain 1917-1948: Competing Policies, Creative Commemoration

Posted on November 8, 2016 by admin

This talk was given at the 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 … Continue reading →

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Balfour Declaration Centenary, 2017: towards constructive commemoration

Posted on October 16, 2016 by admin

‘I never knew that ……’ Liverpool Hope University 1st October 2016. The use of round tables in the Eden Arbour Room at Liverpool Hope University facilitated a welcome and a warmth to the buzz of conversation as participants in the … Continue reading →

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Balfour, Weizmann and the Creation of Israel by Charles Glass

Posted on September 8, 2016 by admin

Charles Glass, writing in the London Review of Books in 2001, reviewed two books looking at the period of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was also published in the Guardian under the tilte: The Mandate Years; colonialism and the … Continue reading →

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‘Britain in Palestine’ shown in UK Parliament

Posted on May 27, 2016 by admin

Parliamentarians from all four of Britain’s main political parties sponsored a showing of ‘Britain in Palestine, 1917-1948’ in The Attlee Suite – one of the main conference suites in the British Parliament. The audience of 130 watched the documentary, which … Continue reading →

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McMahon, Sykes, Balfour: Contradictions and Concealments in British Palestine Policy 1915-1917

Posted on April 17, 2016 by admin

by WILLIAM M. MATHEW Lecture given to the History Group of The Norfolk Club, 14 April 2016 to mark the centenary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916 Abstract These three war-time initiatives are presented as part of a compressed, uncoordinated, two-year … Continue reading →

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