Tag Archives: Palestine Mandate

The best book on the Balfour Declaration is…

Book Review: Palestine the Reality by J.M.N. Jeffries By John McHugo  Many people trying to get to grips with the Israel/Palestine conflict begin with the First World War and the contradictory promises Britain made at that time. These were pledges … Continue reading

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Tragedy in Gaza: Britain’s legacy Scotland’s role

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 … Continue reading

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Impressions of Palestine, 1 April 1946: Pessimist Perspectives

Edit Post Private Memo by Evan M. Wilson (U.S. State Department) William M. Mathew Evan M. Wilson (1910-84), graduate of Haverford College and Oxford University, was in the employ of the U.S. State Department between 1937 and 1961, serving as … Continue reading

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Britain’s historic responsibility to the people of Palestine, Gaza and Israel

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 … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Arab Awakening by George Antonius

The Balfour Project is most grateful to the Times Literary Supplement for allowing us to reprint this review of The Arab Awakening, by George Antonius, the review by Harry Pirie-Gordon being published on November 26, 1938. Readers might also like … Continue reading

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Palestine 1948: Britain Surrenders to Terror

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 … Continue reading

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Britain Palestine Israel – 70 years on

Donate 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 … Continue reading

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The 1929 Palestine Riots – A Conflicted Jewish Historiography by William M Mathew

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. Where their accounts overlap Mathew explores their markedly different approaches.Violence in Palestine in … Continue reading

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

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 … Continue reading

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J.M.N. Jeffries` Palestine Deception: Modern Resonances

In a recent review article (New Middle Eastern Studies 5 [2015]) on , The Palestine Deception, 1915-1923: The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, the Balfour Declaration, and the Jewish National Home. ed William Mathew Dr. Nadia Naser-Najjab of the Institute of Arab and … Continue reading

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Rescuing Balfour: Winston Churchill at the Colonial Office 1921-22, By William Mathew

                    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 … Continue reading

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The McMahon promise to Hussein

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 … Continue reading

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Struggling to Maintain the Mandate’s Iron Cage, 1930 – 1947 by Peter Shambrook

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 … Continue reading

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British policy and Arab Displacement in Palestine, 1915-23: Contingency. Imperialism and Double-Dealing

            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 … Continue reading

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The Balfour Declaration and UK recognition of the Palestinian State….

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 … Continue reading

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Perfidious Albion: Britain’s broken promises: the Balfour Declaration (1917) and its impact on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: what are our responsibilities today?

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, … Continue reading

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Debating Palestine and Israel – Book review by Jeremy Moodey

Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Mary Grey, Debating Israel and Palestine, (Exeter, Impress Books, 2014). It was George Orwell who wrote in his book 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” As with the … Continue reading

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Contradictory Promises

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 … Continue reading

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Recommendations of the King Crane Commission

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 … Continue reading

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Britain’s betrayal of the sacred trust in Palestine, Prof John Dugard

  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 … Continue reading

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Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations

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 … Continue reading

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Palestine Mandate defeated 69 to 29, 1922

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 … Continue reading

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A Reevaluation of the Balfour Declaration by Ashley Perry

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 … Continue reading

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Britain’s historical mandate. by Natasha Gill

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 … Continue reading

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