Balfour Project: Beyond the Declaration

Professor Menachem Klein speaks on the radicalisation of Israeli society and its support for war crimes in Gaza. Klein, a veteran in unofficial Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and a signatory of the Geneva Agreement, discusses the historical and social transformations leading to the current conflict. He identifies three key structural changes in Israeli society: the establishment of an apartheid-like regime, elite transformation, and internal civil unrest. Klein suggests that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have historically misjudged each other's strengths and motivations, contributing to ongoing conflict. He emphasizes the need for a two-state solution based on equality and partnership, with open borders and shared sovereignty. The webinar also discusses the broader implications of U.S. support for Israeli policies and the potential undermining of international law. Audience questions cover a range of topics, including the right of return for Palestinians, the role of U.S. foreign policy, and strategies for influencing Israeli public opinion. Klein calls for increased civil society pressure on politicians and the development of new, collaborative solutions to the conflict.Prof. Menachem Klein is active in many unofficial negotiations with Palestinian counterparts. In October 2003 Prof. Klein signed together with prominent Israeli and Palestinian negotiators the Geneva Agreement – a detailed proposal for a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. He is Senior Fellow in Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue and board member of Palestine – Israel Journal. Previously he was board member of B'tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Dr. Dalal Iriqat; Raji Sourani; Dr. Zahira Jaser (Universityof Sussex); Dr. Victor Kattan (University of Nottingham).

Gaza: Universal Jurisdiction and the Fight Against ImpunityRaji Sourani – Human rights lawyer; Director, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)Justice from Within: Palestinian Agency amid the Shifting Landscape of International SupportDr. Dalal Iriqat – Associate Professor of Diplomacy and Strategic Thinking, Arab American University (Ramallah)Followed by joint Q&A

The Humanitarian Impact of LawlessnessSam Rose – Director of Strategic Planning, UNRWA; Acting Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, followed by Q&A

Upholding the Rule of LawBaroness Brenda Hale (Former President of the UK Supreme Court) and Baroness Helena Kennedy KC (Human rights lawyer and Member of the House of Lords)Michael Sfard – Israeli human rights lawyer

Opening and Welcome, by Chair Professor Adam SutcliffeContext and Aims of the Conference, by Andrew Whitley, Chair of Trustees, Britain Palestine Projectfollowed byH.E. Dr. Husam Zomlot – Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK

The illegal occupation is the umbrella under which all other crimes that Israel commits sit. So, why don't we talk about the occupation enough?In our third episode, join Lara as she speaks to Dr Dalal Iriqat to discuss whether there can be a diplomatic path to the end of the genocide in Palestine. Dr Iriqat is an Assistant Professor of Diplomacy and an expert in conflict resolution, who has published significant literature regarding the political future of Palestine.In this episode Lara and Dalal cover a variety of themes and topics, including the occupation of Palestine as the root cause of the current genocide, apartheid and annexation; the reasons for including all actors in the path towards a peaceful and sustainable agreement and the dangerous language around humanitarian aid and dependency.Join Lara and Dalal as Dalal talks about the conversations that she had with policy makers and politicians while she was in the UK.

Lara Bird-Leakey is joined by Dr Victor Kattan, Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham and expert on the crime of apartheid.In January 2024 Victor co-wrote an article with Gerrard Kemp considering apartheid as a form of genocide in the context of the case of South Africa v Israel. In this analysis, the authors consider that the link between the crime of genocide and apartheid has never been adjudicated on, but that there are clear and obvious links between the two.Throughout the episode, Lara and Victor discuss the historic origins of the crime of apartheid, how courts have developed this in practice, and the hesitancy of the ICJ to want to use the term apartheid in both the South Africa case or their Advisory Opinion.What does this mean for Palestine?

Are our current legal systems fit to provide justice for Palestine?“The geopolitical space that we are now in is very unstable, and I think Gaza has really opened people's eyes to how fragile the current system is”.Join Lara Bird-Leakey from The Britain Palestine Project talk to Mira Naseer, a Legal Officer for the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) who is currently working on the new Global 195 initiative.The Global 195 is a worldwide legal coalition dedicated to holding accountable Israeli and dual national individuals alleged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.Throughout the episode, Lara and Mira discuss the relationship between the ICJ Provisional Measures and domestic accountability mechanisms, how the UK has interpreted its obligations under the Genocide Convention, and how states' in the Global South are rising up together to uphold international law for Palestine.

Are our current legal systems fit to provide justice for Palestine?Join Lara Bird-Leakey and The Britain Palestine Project in our new podcast series to try to answer the question of whether international law is in crisis.Bringing you a new guest every episode, Lara will be speaking to those at the forefront of legal practice who are pursuing accountability for violations of international law. International Law in Crisis will analyse functions and mechanisms within the international legal system, as well as developments in Palestine and Israel, to discuss the role of the UK and the international community in upholding human rights and ending impunity for those who commit grave breaches of international law.With new podcasts every month, and weekly articles covering a range of different legal topics, search International Law in Crisis on Spotify, and make sure to click follow so that you don't miss a single episode.Follow The Britain Palestine Project on Substack to stay up to date with the article series.Tickets for the Britain Palestine Project's annual conference on the 8th May this year, 'The Rule of Law: the route to a better future for Palestinians and Israelis' are on sale now, so check out the link to our website below for tickets and more information.

with Tom Swarbrick, 5pm Thursday 20 March 2025

20th February 2025Dr. Lex Takkenberg will spell out the basic facts about the Agency's mandate, history and work on behalf of Palestinian refugees. A Dutch National, he is Senior Advisor on the Question of Palestine at ARDD, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development, in Amman. From 1989 until 2019, he worked in various field and headquarters positions with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, most recently at its Amman headquarters as the agency's first Chief Ethics Officer. He was previously UNRWA's General Counsel, Director of Operations, and (Deputy) Field Director in Gaza and Syria. Before joining UNRWA, he was the Legal Officer of the Dutch Refugee Council, from 1983 until 1989. A law graduate from the University of Amsterdam, where he also worked as an Academic Assistant from 1987-1989, he obtained a Doctorate in International Law from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1997 after having successfully defended his doctoral dissertation entitled The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law. Oxford University Press (OUP) published a commercial edition of the dissertation in 1998; an integral Arabic translation was published by the Institute for Palestine Studies in 2003. A new version of the book – co-authored with Francesca Albanese – was published, also with OUP, in 2020.

Miranda's mother was a secular Jewish refugee from the Holocaust in 1938. She was always bitterly opposed to what was being done to the Palestinians in her name as a Jew. Because of that, Miranda became an Ecumenical Accompanier in 2009, spent 3 months in Hebron, and has been back many times since. She is a member of the Holocaust survivor Descendants Network and attends demonstrations under that banner. In 2017 she produced a documentary entitled ‘Balfour to Banksy: Divisions and Visions in Palestine‘. She is a trustee of Sabeel-Kairos UK, the Communications Lead for Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine as well as being on the Advisory Forum of the Balfour Project and a founder member of CAMPAIN.

Thair Abu Ras is a PhD candidate at the department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. A Palestinian citizen of Israel, Thair has extensive experience in civil society in Israel. Thair worked for Mossawa – The advocacy centre for Arab citizens in Israel', “Sikkuy-Aufoq: a shared Jewish and Arab nonprofit organisation that works to advance equality and partnership between the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel”, and the European Union delegation to Israel working on employment equality for Palestinian citizens in Israel. Thair has a Masters in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Haifa and a Masters from the University of Houston in Political Science, his current research focuses on the Palestinian citizens of Israel during the Israeli political crisis 2019-2022.   

Online talk given 14th November 2024   Jonathan Kuttab is a co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and co-founder of Nonviolence International. A well-known international human rights lawyer, Jonathan practices in the US, Palestine and Israel. He serves on the Board of Bethlehem Bible College and is President of the Board of Holy Land Trust. Jonathan was the head of the Legal Committee negotiating the Cairo Agreement of 1994 between Israel and the PLO. After graduating with his Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) from Virginia Law School, and practising a couple years on Wall Street, Jonathan returned home to Palestine. Jonathan was visiting scholar at Osgoode Law School at York University in Toronto in the Fall of 2017, and is a founding director of Just Peace Advocates Mouvement pour une Paix Juste, a Canadian based international law human rights not-for-profit organisation. Jonathan is currently the executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Jonathan is a resident of East Jerusalem, and is a partner of Kuttab, Khoury and Hanna Law Firm in East Jerusalem.

24th October 2024 Helena Cobban is a writer and researcher on international affairs who lives in Washington DC. In 1984, Cambridge U.P. published her seminal study The Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Three of her six other sole-authored books dealt with political and strategic developments in the Arab-Israeli theatre, the rest with more global matters. For 17 years she contributed a regular column on global issues to The Christian Science Monitor and Al-Hayat (London). In 2010 she founded Just World Books, which has published ground-breaking titles by Palestinian, Zionism-questioning Jewish, and other authors; and in 2016 she was a co-founder of Just World Educational, which she now serves as president. Her most recent book, co-authored with Rami G. Khouri, is Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters (OR Books, 2024.)

Sir Vincent Fean on Times Radio on 8 October 2024

Tamara El-Halawani is a research assistant at the SOAS ICOP project and a recent MSc graduate in International Politics from SOAS University, London. She is currently completing a dissertation on ‘The Erasure of Palestinians on social media.' Prior to joining ICOP, she worked as a reporter for The Conduit in London and served as a parliamentary staffer for her local constituency in the House of Commons. Tamara also holds a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Genetics from the University of Edinburgh. Dr Zahira Jaser is an Italian-Palestinian Associate Professor at the University of Sussex Business School. She is the Director of the MBA programme. She has been researching the impact of anti-Palestinian racism in organisations and society. Her research and writings have been featured in Science, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the BBC, Wired, the Harvard Business Review and many academic journals. She holds a PhD in Management from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) and a MSc in Organisational Behaviour from the London School of Economics, and received her BA with honours in Political Science and Economics from Università Di Padova, Italy.

with Kristyan Benedict, Crisis Response Manager for Amnesty International UK Kristyan Benedict manages Amnesty International UK's Crisis Response Programme, focusing on armed conflict, mass repression, and UK foreign policy. His work has involved working with and supporting activists and human rights defenders from a range of countries and regions, including Israel/Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, China, and Myanmar. He's worked on Israel/Palestine at a high level since the early 2000s, with a particular focus on justice and accountability and developing the End Israeli Apartheid Campaign.

Join us for an exclusive Friends of the Balfour Project meeting, 'Upholding International law - dream or reality?' with international law expert Dr Ardi Imseis and Andrew Whitley (Chair of the Trustees) and Sir Vincent Fean (Trustee). Ardi will speak on the prospects in the two ICJ cases, and on the ICC warrants request. He will then take questions from our Friends. Ardi Imseis Dr. Ardi Imseis is an Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Queen's University. He is a Member of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, a UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry mandated to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the civil war in Yemen. Between 2002 and 2014, he served in senior legal and policy capacities with the UN in the Middle East (UNRWA & UNHCR).

  Dr Phyllis Starkey (Vice Chair, Balfour Project ), Chris Doyle (Director, CAABU), Yasmine Ahmed (UK Director, HRW), Nour Odeh, chaired by Sir Vincent Fean (Trustee, Balfour Project), followed by Q&A Closing Statement -Dr Phyllis Starkey   Part of our Peace with Justice – how to get there conference on 6 June 2024 at Bush House, London.

How young people bring about change—The Balfour Project Peace Advocacy Fellowship Programme Presentation chaired by Matan Rosenstrauch (Fellowship Programme Coordinator) Part of our Peace with Justice – how to get there conference on 6 June 2024 at Bush House, London.

Keynote Speaker – The UN, Human Rights and Gaza Dr Agnès Callamard (General Secretary, Amnesty International), followed by Q & A Part of our Peace with Justice – how to get there conference on 6 June 2024 at Bush House, London.

The Gaza War: A Humanitarian Disaster with Mohammed Ghalayini (Gazan scientist, Amplify Gaza Stories) Part of our Peace with Justice – how to get there conference on 6 June 2024 at Bush House, London.

The challenges ahead Daniel Levy (President, US/MEP) & Nour Odeh (National Democratic Assembly, Palestine) & followed by Q&A Part of our Peace with Justice – how to get there conference on 6 June 2024 at Bush House, London.

Welcome from Adam Sutcliffe (Professor in European History, King's College London) & Andrew Whitley (Chair, Balfour Project) Part of our Peace with Justice – how to get there conference on 6 June 2024 at Bush House, London.

Andrea De Domenico brings more than twenty years of experience in humanitarian assistance and emergency relief both in the field and in headquarters. Between 1998 and 2005 he has worked in Albania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo and Pakistan with various NGOs managing humanitarian and relief programs and operations in different sectors. Andrea joined OCHA in 2005 in DRC where he initially worked on planning and then moved to humanitarian financing, managing one of the first common humanitarian funds established by OCHA. In 2011 he joined the Funding Coordination Section in OCHA New York. In 2015 he became the head of the Country Based Pooled Fund Section in OCHA New York consolidating the growth of the humanitarian funds. In 2019 Andrea moved to OCHA oPt Office as deputy and since 2022 he is the Head of the OCHA Office in the oPt. Andrea has a BA in International Law, an MA in Political Science and an MA in International Relations. He is an Italian national and is married and has three children.

Sir Vincent Fean is a retired member of the British Diplomatic Service (DS) 1975-2014. His last post was as Consul-General, Jerusalem (2010-14). Before Jerusalem, he was Ambassador to Libya, and previously High Commissioner to Malta.  Vincent advocates equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, and British Government recognition of the state of Palestine alongside Israel on pre-June 1967 lines. He is a Trustee of the Balfour Project.

Rula Salameh is a veteran journalist, community organiser, and the Education and Outreach Director in Palestine for Just Vision, an organisation that fills a media gap in Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement.  She produced three of Just Vision's films - Budrus (2009), My Neighbourhood (2012), and Naila and the Uprising (2017) - and has led the team's public engagement efforts across Palestinian society for over 15 years.  Since 2019, she has contributed a weekly column to Ma'an News covering Palestinian social issues from the perspective of grassroots communities. In addition to her work with Just Vision, Rula is the host of Falasteen al-Khair (“Philanthropy in Palestine”), one of the most popular TV shows in Palestine, and the General Director of the NGO Falasteen al-Khair. Rula was one of the founders of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in 1993 following the Oslo Accords. She has served as the Middle East Liaison for the organisation Peace X Peace, as the Project Coordinator for Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy (MEND), and established a computer lab and children's library in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem through her work with Refugee Trust International. Rula holds an international diploma in Computers in Business and Management from Cambridge International College and attended Birzeit University in Ramallah. She is a member of the International Federation of Journalists.

Nadav Tamir is the Executive Director of J Street Israel and an Advisor for International and Governmental Affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. Nadav served as the Senior Policy Adviser to the President of Israel during the last 3 years of the presidency of Shimon Peres. Nadav returned to Israel in 2010 after serving as the Consul General of Israel to New England at the Consulate General of Israel in Boston for four years. He then served at the Policy Planning unit of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs until July 2011 when he joined the President's Office. Nadav joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993 and the following year began to serve as the Policy Assistant to the Foreign Minister. Nadav had the privilege to serve as a policy assistant under three Foreign Ministers – Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and David Levy. He was then promoted to the position of Political Officer at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1997. In 2001, Nadav was granted the position of Advisor to the Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. Nadav was the chairperson of the Wexner – Israel Alumni Association. He was chosen as a Wexner Israel Fellow and earned his Master's in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2004. Nadav is on the steering committee of the Geneva Initiative and on the board of the Mitvim think tank for regional foreign policy. Prior to joining the Ministry, Nadav served as a security officer at the Residence of the President of the State of Israel, while simultaneously earning his B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Nadav was born and raised on Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel. He began his career in public service in 1980 in the IDF, where he eventually served as a company commander and retired with the rank of Major. He is married to Dr. Ronit Tamir, a dance educator, and is the father of Maya, Ido, and Naama.

with Claire Nicholl (Save the Children), Tareq Shrourou (Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights) and Jude Lanchin (solicitor). All links to reports can be found here www.balfourproject.org/injustice Claire Nicholl is Save the Children's Regional Humanitarian Policy & Advocacy Lead for the Middle East. She has been working with the agency's team in the occupied Palestinian territory for many years, and is the author of several reports on the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. This work has been underpinned by her time spent with former detainees and other children and young people in the oPt, including supporting the Gaza children's council.  Tareq Shrourou is Director & Principal Lawyer of the UK legal charity, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. Before becoming LPHR's first director, he worked as a solicitor specialising in asylum and human rights law, and co-managed the public legal advice service of the UK human rights organisation, Liberty. He holds an LLM in Public International Law from King's College London. Jude Lanchin qualified as a solicitor in 1994, after a career in community-based work. She is an associate at Bindmans. She has maintained a strong interest in the rights of the child in the oPt and was a key part of a delegation of British jurists which visited Israel and Palestine in 2011 in a mission funded by the Foreign Office. The delegation was tasked with investigating the situation of Palestinian children in Israeli detention. They produced a report, which is available here. Today, Jude will discuss this report and developments since 2011. 

Professor Nick Maynard trained at Oxford University, Guy's Hospital, London, and Melbourne, Australia. He is a Consultant Upper GI Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Associate Professor of Surgery at Oxford University. He set up the Oxford Oesophagogastric Cancer Centre in 1997 and is the Senior Surgeon and Clinical Lead. From 2021 to 2023 he was President of the Association of Upper GI Surgery for Great Britain and Ireland (AUGIS), demitting in September 2023. Nick first visited Palestine in 2008, and since 2010 he has been visiting Gaza regularly. Each October he leads a group of Oxford Consultants specialising in surgery, medicine, paediatrics, and obstetrics to Gaza to teach medical students from the Islamic University of Gaza and Al Azhar University. Nick also works with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP UK) as part of their surgical team to travel into Gaza to carry out and teach advanced upper gastrointestinal surgery for cancer and benign diseases. In December 2023 with MAP Nick led the first UK medical mission into Gaza during the current conflict and worked at Al Aqsa Hospital for 2 weeks. He will be returning to Gaza shortly. Nick joined the Board of Trustees of IMET2000 (International Medical Education Trust) in 2016 and has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2018.

In conversation with Andrew Whitley, Balfour Project Chair.  From 2010 to November 2018 Charles Bird, OBE, was a Teaching Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK, and was Course Tutor for the Certificate and Advanced Certificate in Terrorism Studies. Between 1986 and 2010 he was a member of HM Diplomatic Service, specialising in the Middle East, conflict, post-conflict, terrorism and counter-terrorism issues. Postings included to the UAE (1988–92) with involvement in Desert Storm, Belgrade (1992–93) during the war in former Yugoslavia, Macedonia (1999) for the Kosovo crisis, Greece and Nigeria. During tours in the UK, his jobs included Deputy Head of Middle East Department, Head of South Asia Department, and leading the project that resulted in the formation of the interdepartmental (FCO, MoD, DfID) Stabilisation Unit, which co-ordinates the UK Government's post conflict reconstruction work in, amongst other places, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003 he was seconded back to the military and was on the staff of the General Officer Commanding Ist (UK) Armoured Division in Iraq, both during and for several months after the invasion. Between 2004–2008 he was on secondment to the MoD working on issues related to counter-terrorism.

Daniel (Danny) Seidemann has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. He has been a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 1987. Since 1991, he has specialized in the geopolitics of contemporary Jerusalem, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the city.Danny and his colleagues founded, Terrestrial Jerusalem, and are frequently consulted by senior decision-makers and governmental bodies on matters pertaining to both unfolding developments in Jerusalem and the broader issues relating to a permanent status agreement. He has also been conducting ongoing discussions on Jerusalem issues within the Arab world, and with Christian faith communities and diaspora Jewish communities. He has participated in numerous Jerusalem-related projects, colloquia and track-two deliberations. In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the title of honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his work in Jerusalem.

The Balfour Project and Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance, jointly presented this timely webinar. While the world's attention is on the Gaza war, very bad things are happening fast in the West Bank. Susan Power, Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al-Haq in Ramallah, analysed the Israeli lockdown of the West Bank and the licence given to settler violence and forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands. Mr Owda Hathaleen gave an eye witness account of the pressures being brought to bear on the villagers of Masafer Yatta to abandon their homes and livelihoods. They recommended actions to safeguard lives and people's futures. Owda Hathaleen, from Umm Al-Khair village, Masafer Yatta, a human rights activist, writer and an English teacher. Dr. Susan Power is Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man. 

Avi Shlaim is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (1988); War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History (1995); The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2000, updated edition 2014); Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace (2007); Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations (2009); and Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab-Jew (2023).Nicolas Pelham is Middle East correspondent at The Economist, Author of Holy Lands, Journalist of the Year 2021 nominee.

Online webinar hosted on 21 November 2023 In Search of the River Jordan is the new book by award-winning writer and journalist James Fergusson. Travelling through Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, Fergusson describes how historic water resources such as the Jordan River and the Dead Sea have been diverted or depleted, and how the unequal competition for remaining water resources dominates the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories. This webinar addressed broader contexts, including the war in Israel-Gaza and the COP28 Climate Change summit in Dubai (which will starts a few days after this webinar) and the issue of long-term environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity that is being caused by water poverty in the West Bank and Gaza. James Fergusson is a British journalist and foreign correspondent who has written for publications such as The Economist, The Times and the Daily Mail, and has published seven books, including A Million Bullets about the British army's involvement in Afghanistan.

The 29th of September marks the centenary of when the League of Nations ‘Mandate Agreement' for Palestine entered into force in international law.  This legal instrument purported to put the commitment to establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine made by Arthur Balfour in the eponymous Declaration of 1917—then merely a non-legally-effective statement—on a sound international legal footing.  It paved the way for how the UK administered the Mandate. The Agreement purported to bypass the legal obligation in Article 22 of the League Covenant to provisionally recognize statehood of and for the inhabitants of the Mandate—people who were overwhelmingly Arab Palestinians—at the time the Mandate commenced. And it purported to permit the UK to maintain its administration, for what turned out to be a quarter of a century, so as to enable Jewish migration to, and Jewish institutions of self-government to be established in, what could then be proclaimed the state of Israel, as happened, covering part of the territory of the Mandate, in 1948.  In international law, then, the key date for the supposed legal basis for all that happened in that period is 1923, not 1917.   On the eve of the centennial anniversary of that date, this lecture will present a new argument, challenging the received wisdom about the legal effectiveness of the Mandate Agreement.  For the first time it will be explained that the body adopting the Agreement—the League Council—did not have the legal power to modify the obligations in the League Covenant, and, as such, the requirement to implement provisional statehood in Article 22 remained the operative legal obligation binding on the UK. Consequently, by failing to enable Palestinian statehood a century ago, the UK breached international law, and this can form the basis for a claim for reparations by the Palestinian people today. The lecture is based on Dr Wilde's article published in the Journal of the History of International Law, ‘Tears of the Olive Trees: Mandatory Palestine, the UK, and accountability for colonialism in international law'. Ralph Wilde is a member of the Faculty of Laws at UCL, University of London. He is an expert in international law. His current writing focuses on extraterritorial human rights, migration and refugee protection, and international law and the Palestinian people. His previous work on the concept of trusteeship over people and territorial administration by international organizations includes his book International Territorial Administration: How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away(OUP), awarded the Certificate of Merit of the American Society of International Law. He previously served on the Executive bodies of the American and European Societies of International Law, and the International Law Association, and is the past recipient of the UK Philip Leverhulme Prize and the Peace Fellowship of the Åland Peace Institute. He also provides legal advice and representation to states, international organizations, and NGOs, and is currently acting as Senior Counsel and Advocate representing the 22 states of the League of Arab States in the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem Advisory Opinion case before the UN International Court of Justice.

An epic journey to uncover a Holocaust inheritance leads relentlessly to discovering a Nakba inheritance: two catastrophes that are very different, but very connected. Can they both be heard and understood? With personal testimony, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

Separate & Unequal—Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch Access to Health—Melanie Ward, Medical Aid for Palestinians Children's Rights & Child Prisoners—Miranda Cleland, Defense for Children International—Palestine Freedom of Movement, Expression and Assembly—Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq 2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

Richard Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations. John Dugard is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specialisations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, human rights, criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission, the primary UN institution for the development of international law, and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories. Michael Lynk is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, and was the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. 

Matthew Teller's “Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City” (Profile Books, 2022) was named a Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph. Matthew writes for the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, Financial Times and other global media. He has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and World Service, and has reported for Radio 4's ‘From Our Own Correspondent' from around the Middle East and beyond. He is the author of several travel guides, including the Rough Guide to Jordan. His previous book was "Quite Alone: Journalism from the Middle East 2008–2019".

Ambassador (ret.) Ilan Baruch is chairperson of the Policy Working Group (PWG), an Israeli advocacy team focusing on policy issues pertaining to the achievement of peace between Israel and Palestine based on the two-state paradigm. PWG members are all volunteers and come from senior diplomatic, academic, political, media and human rights backgrounds. On March 1st 2011, Baruch resigned from the Israeli Foreign Ministry on grounds of principle after a 36-year diplomatic career. In multiple media interviews, Baruch explained that his resignation came in the wake of Israel's departure from its decade-long commitment to the two- state solution. Baruch's last posting overseas was Ambassador of Israel in South Africa (2005-2008) as well as in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Ashraf Al-Ajrami is the Director of Damour Company for Community Development; head of the Damour Advocacy team, seeking to increase the resilience of deprived Palestinian communities and build a just peace. Born 1961. He is the former Minister of Prisoners Affairs in the Palestinian Authority (PA), 2007-09, and former Director of Israeli Affairs, PA Information Ministry. Imprisoned in Israel, 1984-96. He is a member of the Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society and a peace activist.

Matthew Hughes is Chair in military history at Brunel University London. His most recent book Britain's Pacification of Palestine: the British Army, the Colonial State and the Arab Revolt, 1936-39 came out with Cambridge University Press in 2019. He is currently working on a project examining British military force on Borneo at the end of empire, 1962-66.

Ray Dolphin worked in the West Bank and Gaza for over 30 years, most recently for the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), where he was Senior Analyst. In addition to numerous UN reports, his book ‘The West Bank Wall: Unmaking Palestine' was published by Pluto Books in 2006 and he collaborated with Magnum photographer Joseph Koudelka for the photo-book, ‘Wall', published by Aperture in 2013.

Author Raja Shehadi in conversation with journalist Tim Llewellyn about his new book We Could Have Been Friends my Father and I Raja Shehadeh is a lawyer and writer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books published by Profile Books including the Orwell Prize-winning Palestinian Walks, as well as Strangers in the House; Occupation Diaries; Language of War, Language of Peace; A Rift in time; Where the Line is Drawn and his most recent book Going Home A Walk Through Fifty Years of Occupation. He lives in Ramallah Palestine.