The hidden history of British war crimes in Palestine — and the campaign for an apology

Murder. People “shot while trying to escape”. Torture. Beatings. Villages destroyed and pillaged. Homes demolished. Forced removals. Mass arrests. Administrative detentions. Repeated assaults on judicial independence.

These could be descriptions of what takes place in any number of “rogue states” throughout history: from Pinochet’s Chile and apartheid South Africa to Bashar al-Assad’s Syria and Israel’s routine repression of Palestinians since 1967. But they are actually descriptions of Palestine under British rule in 1936. The history is as shocking as it is despotic — yet, with all eyes on Israel’s war in Gaza and what the United Nations Commission of Inquiry has determined to be a genocide, Britain gets off scot-free.

No more. Last month, lawyers representing fourteen elderly Palestinian victims of Britain’s policies of repression in what was known as “mandate Palestine” (1917–1948), served the British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, the foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, the defence secretary John Healey and the attorney general Richard Hermer, with a 427-page legal petition outlining the allegations and rights violations in detail. They are requesting a response to the petition and a formal apology. Their campaign is called “Britain Owes Palestine”.

Read the full article on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) here.