Palestinians seek apology and reparations from Britain for war crimes and other international law violations during “unlawful occupation”
A diverse group of Palestinians including 91-year old global philanthropist Munib Al Masri, who was shot by British soldiers at age 13, has submitted a 400-page legal petition to Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper, John Healey and Richard Hermer.
The petition – drafted by KCs Ben Emmerson and Danny Friedman alongside regional experts John Quigley, Avi Shlaim and Victor Kattan – presents evidence showing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was "Made in Britain" thanks to Britain's unlawful actions when occupying Palestine from 1917 to 1948.
The submission launches the “Britain Owes Palestine” campaign demanding an official UK acknowledgement of wrongdoing, apology and reparations for creating a “century of oppression”. Ministers could face judicial review proceedings if they fail to respond.
A GROUP of Palestinians, including 91-year old philanthropist Munib Al Masri, has submitted a legal petition demanding the UK takes responsibility for “its serial international law violations” including war crimes committed during the British occupation of Palestine between 1917 and 1948.
The 400-page legal document, drafted by a team of prominent lawyers and regional experts led by Ben Emmerson KC, landed at Number 10, the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and the Attorney General’s office today, 7 September 2025, and records “incontrovertible evidence” that Britain breached international law standards applicable at the time. It details Britain's “unlawful” legacy including the Balfour Declaration in 1917, acting as an occupying power during its self-granted “Mandate” – an authority to rule the territory that had no legal basis – and subsequent systematic abuse of the Palestinian people.
Marking the launch of the “Britain Owes Palestine” campaign, the petition shows how ongoing Palestinian suffering can be traced directly to Britain's violations of international law during occupation and withdrawal. The Government is obliged to respond or could find itself brought before the courts in judicial review proceedings.
Lead Petitioner Munib Al Masri, who was shot in the leg by British soldiers aged 13, said: “The current crisis in Palestine was ‘Made in Britain’, through a catalogue of systemic violations and abuse of the Palestinian people. Together we have suffered more than a century of oppression.”
“Britain 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. An apology would be a just start to what Palestinians expect from the British government.”
Mr Al Masri’s written statement, accompanying the petition, recalls British troops rounding up large numbers of men, escorting them through towns with their hands and feet bound with rope, and later holding them in cages prior to execution.
International human rights lawyer and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson KC said: “This petition demonstrates, by reference to a comprehensive analysis of contemporary evidence, the extent of British responsibility for the terrible suffering in Palestine, which can be traced back to Britain's violations of international law during its occupation and subsequent withdrawal.”
“These historic injustices continue to shape the realities on the ground today. Britain owes a debt to the Palestinian people. Today’s petition is based upon the international obligations of the United Kingdom to make amends.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About the petition:
The Petition has been submitted to the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Defence Secretary John Healey and Attorney General Richard Hermer along with statements by Mr Al Masri and other petitioners.
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 (i.e. the law of occupation set out in the Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention (II) on the Laws and Customs of War on Land (1899/1907); the law of mandates found in the Covenant of the League of Nation (1919); the prohibitions of war crimes and violations of elementary consideration of humanity contained in the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) and customary international law; and, lastly, the law of the United Nations under the 1945 UN Charter).
When the facts are tested in this novel way, three sets of legal wrongs are exposed:-
First, Britain breached international law as an occupying power by: (a) unlawfully failing to recognise an Arab nation in Palestine as it pledged to do in the Husayn-McMahon Agreement in 1915; (b) acting unlawfully as an occupying power of Ottoman Palestine from 1917 to 1924 by transforming the political, social and demographic life of the country in accordance with the Balfour Declaration but without the sovereign title to do so; (c) creating a Mandate for itself without legal authority and in breach of the Covenant of the League of Nations; and then (d) 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 Arab Rebellion of 1936-1939, 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, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Thirdly, Britain bears primary responsibility for the abandonment and breaking up of the single unitary territory of Palestine that it occupied in 1917, having encouraged partition as a solution to irreconcilable divisions it had itself nurtured. It foresaw, but did absolutely nothing to prevent, atrocities and expulsions of Palestinians by armed Zionist groups cumulating in the Nakba.
Through its occupation and repression of Palestine over thirty years, Britain unlawfully furthered the aims of Zionist colonisation and trained and supplied its military forces thereby simultaneously frustrating Palestinian Arab self-government, resistance and security. Partition, as proposed by the United Nations in November 1947 was an avoidable, and soon to be catastrophically ill-fated, ‘solution’ to a ‘problem’ that Britain had created in a Palestine that it no longer wanted to govern.
In its withdrawal from Palestine between 1947 and 1948, Britain breached its obligations under the 1945 United Nations Charter, the 1919 Covenant of the League of Nations, and the Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention 1899/1907, in failing to protect and promote the rights of the indigenous Palestinian Arab people, resulting in the destruction of the integrity of the territorial Palestinian state detached from Turkey after the Treaty of Lausanne and the abandonment of the Palestinian Arab people to atrocities and mass expulsions from their national homeland.
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, Dr Victor Kattan, and barristers Ben Emmerson KC and Danny Friedman KC.
About Munib Al Masri
The first petitioner, Munib Al Masri, was born in Nablus, Palestine in 1934 and his family’s history dates back 800 years. During his life, he has established himself as a global industrialist and philanthropist. He has operated as an independent civil society actor, seeking unity across different parts of the Palestinian spectrum, investing in the development of Palestinian state economy and institutions, and advocating for Palestinian rights to self-determination and independence.
The other petitioners are:-
Ghusoun Abdullah Ahmad Abdou who grew up in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, because her grandparents were forcibly displaced from their homes in Kfar Kanna in the Galilee region in July 1948 and Tarshiha in October 1948. None of her family have since been able to return to their homelands in the 1948-conquered territories.
Imad Fayeq Shareef Abukishek whose family originates from the village of Arab Abu Kishk, located north of Jaffa which is now in Israel. They were well known for cultivating and exporting citrus fruits to Europe. His family was forcibly displaced and barred from returning to their lands. Their properties were classified as ‘state-owned’ by the newly-formed Israeli government in 1948.
Walid Najib Mustafa Alahmad whose family is from the village of Rummana, located in the district of Jenin. Mr Alahmad’s grandfather and great-uncles owned significant amounts of land in Marj Ibn Amer, which became part of Israel. The family has never regained access, despite still holding their land ownership documents.
Nusir Rahmi Hamed Arafat whose family are from the city of Nablus in Palestine. His great-grandfather owned one of the largest residential buildings there, housing fifty of Mr Arafat’s family members. During the 1936-39 Arab Rebellion, it was demolished thanks to a military order made by a British army commander without the involvement of a court or prior notice. The entire family were displaced.
Ahmad Mahmoud Abusalo’om whose family originates from the village of Al-Dawayima, located in the Hebron subdistrict, which was conquered by Israel in 1948. Most in the family fled, avoiding Operation Yoav on 28 and 29 October 1948, but one of his father’s uncles was among those killed in the ensuing massacre, an event since documented both by survivors and in Israeli military records.
Taysir Mohammad Saleh Nasserallah who was born, grew up and continues to live in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus, Palestine. His family came from the village of Qaqun, situated in the Tulkarm district. They fled the area when attacks by the Alexandroni Brigade of the Haganah began in the surrounding area prior to the British withdrawal in May 1948 and continued thereafter. The family were never allowed to return to their homes.
Said Husain Ahmad Haj whose family lived in a village called Tireh (‘Tira’) Dandan, near al-Yahudiya, in the Al-Lydd - now Lod - district. In July 1948, as a fourteen-year-old boy, Mr Haj witnessed Haganah forces entering his village as part of Operation Dani that led to the expulsion of the family to the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus where Mr Haj still lives.
Jehad Izzat Yacoub Issa who also grew up in the Balata Refugee Camp following his parents’ expulsion from their village of Tireh Dandan in the Al-Lydd - now Lod - district after Zionist militias took over the land in July 1948. The family left behind land, houses, livestock, and businesses and have been unable to return.
Mohammed Mahmoud Abdalqader Harb whose family originate from the village of Miska, in the Tulkarm district, now part of the State of Israel. Mr Harb is 88 years. His family was forced to temporarily leave Miska after the British army on 27 May 1938 executed six men from his extended family. In April 1948, prior to the British withdrawal, the family left the village again, this time under duress of threats from Zionist militias. After attacks on the surrounding area in May 1949, they moved to the Hannota mountains and then the Balata refugee camp, where Mr Harb still lives.
Khaled Tawfik Sabry Thouqan whose family came from Jaffa, which from January to April 1948 was subjected to attacks from the Irgun and the Haganah, culminating in a major operation on 25 April 1948. The family were expelled and eventually moved to the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus where he still lives.
Samira Baghdadi whose family came from Safad, in the Upper Galilee. In early May 1948, before Britain had fully withdrawn, the Haganah conducted a ground attack on the Palestinian Arab part of the town. She was eight at the time and recalls armed men arriving at the family home threatening their lives if they did not leave. The family walked to Syria, where they lived in a refugee camp, before the petitioner through her studies and employment was able to move to the United States.
Mohammad Saeed Barakeh whose family came from Saffuriyya, in Nazareth, which was destroyed in 1948 after Britain’s withdrawal. Mr Barakeh’s father witnessed British forces arbitrarily killing villagers, including disabled men and burning homes. His family were displaced during the Nakba, after a Haganah campaign that included bombing the village.
Dana Farraj whose family originate from Al-Lydd – now Lod and part of the state of Israel. Her family were expelled in July 1948 and were forced on an infamous march, in what was part of the single largest population transfer during the Nakba. The family moved to the Al-Jalazone refugee camp where her father was born.
