FAQ

THE CAMPAIGN

  • The campaign has seven asks. Most importantly it is calling for the British Government to formally acknowledge, apologise and provide meaningful reparations to the Palestinian people for Britain’s violations of international law between 1917 and 1948.

  • Ongoing Palestinian suffering can be traced directly to Britain’s violations of international law during its occupation and withdrawal from Palestine.

    There are three sets of legal wrongs Britain committed while claiming to be present to protect Palestine’s people:

    • breaching international law as a belligerent occupying power;

    • unlawfully repressing the population of Palestine by systematically breaching international law including by committing war crimes; and

    • nurturing division, proposing partition and abandoning Palestine with catastrophic consequences.

    International law demands that wrongs of this kind are properly remedied with reparations. We demand that Britain honours its international law commitments.

  • Reparations beyond an apology can take many forms, not just financial compensation, but also policy changes, education initiatives, meaningfully support for self-determination and diplomatic support for Palestinian rights grounded in international law.

  • The roots of today’s genocide in Palestine go back to the British Mandate. Britain’s decisions and actions during 1917–1948 enabled the structures that continue to harm Palestinians. Acknowledging that history helps the world understand that today’s atrocities are not accidental but part of a long continuum of injustice.

THE PETITION

  • The legal petition is a 400-page document demanding that the Britain takes responsibility for serial international law violations committed prior to and during the British occupation of Palestine between 1917 and 1948. It is unique because it not only gathers incontrovertible evidence of Britain’s actions and failures during the mandate period, but systematically tests them against the international law standards of the time. Britain has always claimed it respects and complies with those standards.

  • The petitioners are a group of 14 Palestinians whose lives have been impacted by Britain’s unlawful acts in Palestine.

  • The petition gathers together and analyses the incontrovertible, primary source evidence of Britain’s wrongdoing and then tests it against the international law standards Britain was required to comply with at the time.

    First, Britain breached international law as an occupying power by:

    • unlawfully failing to recognise an Arab nation in Palestine as it pledged to do in the Husayn-McMahon Agreement;

    • acting unlawfully as an occupying power of Ottoman Palestine from 1917 to 1924 by transforming the political and social life of the country in accordance with the Balfour Declaration but without the sovereign title to do so;

    • creating a Mandate for itself without legal authority and in breach of the Covenant of the League of Nations; and

    • then having failed to agree a peace treaty with Turkey that transferred sovereign title over Palestine to Britain, continuing to act unlawfully as an occupying power from 1924 to 1948.

    Secondly, Britain unlawfully repressed the population of Palestine, particularly during the suppression of the Great Arab Rebellion, adopting a form of statutory martial law that subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a widespread pattern of murder, torture, persecution, arbitrary detention, and other inhumane acts, causing severe human suffering.

    Thirdly, Britain, through its unlawful conduct, bears its own responsibility for the country’s partition in 1948. The logical culmination of Britain’s occupation, repression and the division it had nurtured was the breaking up of Palestine as a unitary political entity in 1948. Having encouraged partition as a ‘solution’, Britain withdrew precipitously, obstructing the UN Palestine Commission and failing to discharge its obligations to protect the population. It foresaw, but did nothing to prevent, atrocities and expulsions of Palestinians cumulating in the Nakba—the catastrophic expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians.

  • The evidence has been gathered and independently analysed against contemporary legal standards by a team of historians, legal historians, and international lawyers including Professors John Quigley and Avi Shlaim, Assistant Professor Victor Kattan, and barristers Ben Emmerson CBE KC and Danny Friedman KC.

OUR STANCE

  • This campaign is not concerned with contesting post-1948 recognition of Israel in international law. Its focus is on Britain’s historic wrongdoings toward the Palestinian people and what the British Government can do today to make amends.

    We are guided by values of justice, equality, and accountability. We oppose all forms of racism, including antisemitism.