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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">'Gaza is a direct result of Balfour': Palestinians petition UK for reparations over historic crimes</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Daniel Tester</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">September 8, 2025</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>A group of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinians </a>has served a legal petition to the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/uk" target="_blank">UK</a> demanding acknowledgement of British crimes in <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestine</a> between 1918 and 1948. </p>
<p>Drafted by two King\u2019s Council (KC) lawyers, the 400-page legal
document says it records \u201cincontrovertible evidence\u201d that Britain
breached international law standards applicable at the time.</p>
<p>The petition presents seven requests to the UK government, including
issuing a public apology in the House of Commons and investigating
potential reparations for the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>Filed to the government on Sunday night, the document is addressed to
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper,
Defence Secretary John Healey and Attorney General Richard Hermer. </p>
<p>As a formal request to the government based on detailed legal
analysis, the government is legally obliged to respond to the petition
or could face high court judicial review proceedings.</p><p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/nakba-britain-history-betrayal" target="_blank">Britain has long faced criticism</a> for its historic role in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine.</p>
<p>In 1917, the British government issued the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/britain-palestine-balfour-declaration-fatal-mistake" target="_blank">Balfour Declaration</a>,
vowing to create a \u201cnational home for the Jewish people" in Palestine -
despite the overwhelming majority of the population being of non-Jewish
origin. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>'The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was made in Britain'</p>
<p>- <em>Professor Avi Shlaim, St Antony's College, Oxford</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to the declaration, "nothing shall be done which may
prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine".</p>
<p>Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War,
Palestine was overseen by a British mandate from 1920 to 1948, during
which time the petitioners say British conduct amounted to \u201cwar crimes
and crimes against humanity\u201d.</p>
<p>Leading Israeli historian of the conflict, Professor Emeritus <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/avi-shlaim" target="_blank">Avi Shlaim</a>, is a co-contributor to the document, along with the international law academics Professor Emeritus <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/features/book-review-international-diplomacy-israels-founders" target="_blank">John Quigley</a> and Dr Victor Kattan. </p>
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<p>\u201cThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict was made in Britain,\u201d Shlaim told Middle East Eye. </p>
<p>\u201cThe tiny Zionist minority was enabled by Britain in 1917 to embark
on the systematic takeover of Palestine, a process that continues to
this day.\u201d</p>
<p>Shlaim emphasised that historic British foreign policy - as well as
ongoing support - holds significant responsibility for Israel\u2019s ongoing
genocide in Gaza, in which at least 66,000 Palestinians have been killed
since 7 October 2023. </p>
<p>\u201cThe current war in Gaza is the direct result of the Balfour declaration,\u201d Shlaim said.</p>
<p>\u201cBritain has always supported Zionist settler colonialism - which has
always been expansionist - and today that movement has reached its
cruel climax, with Israel - Britain\u2019s protege - perpetrating genocide in
Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.\u201d</p>
<h3>'The entire British enterprise was unlawful'</h3>
<p>The legal petition focuses both on particular abuses committed by
Britain in Mandatory Palestine, and the illegality of Britain\u2019s
overarching occupation and partition plans.</p>
<p>\u201cThis petition represents the first time the British government has
ever been called to account for being in Palestine unlawfully, where its
tenure had no legal basis,\u201d explained Quigley.</p>
<p>\u201cIt proclaimed itself under a League of Nations mandate system that
required it to have territorial title - which it did not have,\u201d Quigley
elaborated.</p>
<p>\u201cSo really, the entire British enterprise was unlawful - not only the particular atrocities it committed."</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/nakba-five-books-understand-ethnic-cleansing-palestine-creation-israel" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_%28GPO%29_-_Arab_People_fleeing.png.webp?itok=A3XNkgup" width="395" height="247" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;">
</a></p><p><font size="1">Nakba: Essential books explaining the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and creation of Israel</font></p>
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</p></div>
<p>The group of 14 petitioners is led by 91-year-old Palestinian
industrialist Munib al-Masri, who was shot in the leg by British
soldiers aged 13.</p>
<p>A survivor of the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nakba-palestine-catastrophe-explained" target="_blank">Palestinian Nakba of 1948</a>,
in which Zionist militias killed around 13,000 Palestinians and
displaced 750,000 others following the sudden withdrawal of British
forces, Masri said that the events he witnessed during that period
inspired his lifelong commitment to seeking justice.</p>
<p>\u201c1948 was terrible. I saw thousands of refugees coming to Nablus [in
Palestine] hungry, barefooted, tired and without clothes. It's been on
my mind ever since,\u201d he told Middle East Eye.</p>
<p>\u201cBritain can only play its part in building a just peace in the
region today if it acknowledges its defining role in the horrors of the
past,\u201d he added.</p>
<p>\u201cAn apology would be a just start to what Palestinians expect from the British government.\u201d</p>
<p>Britain has previously acknowledged other colonial injustices,
including apologising in March 2025 for the 1948 massacre of 24 unarmed
men at Batang Kali, Malaya.</p>
<p>A previous petition demanding an official apology for British policy
in Palestine was filed in 2017 to mark the centenary of the Balfour
Declaration. </p>
<p>The petition, which was signed by 13,600 people, was bluntly dismissed by then Prime Minister Theresa May's administration. </p>
<p>\u201cWe are proud of our role in creating the state of Israel,\u201d<a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/184398" target="_blank"> said the British government's response,</a> issued weeks before May received Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/alliance-between-israel-and-britain-not-miraculous-it-murky" target="_blank">official state visit.</a></p>
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