Dozens of British politicians want Prime Minister Keir Starmer to apologise for the UK’s “historical responsibility” to Palestine, in an open letter whose signatories included 18 Labour party backbenchers.
The letter, signed by 45 cross-party MPs and peers, says it is time the UK apologised for Britain’s withdrawal from Palestine in 1947, which led to the creation of Israel.
The letter states that “even under the laws of the time”, Britain had “no right to give” away Palestine in 1947. “We withdrew having encouraged partition while doing nothing to prevent the atrocities and mass expulsions that followed,” the letter said.
Prominent left-wing MPs from the Labour party’s backbenches including John McDonnell, Olivia Blake and Nadia Whittome also signed the letter, alongside Liberal Democrats Layla Moran and Sarah Dyke and former Green Party leader Carla Denyer.
It welcomed the UK’s recognition of Palestine in September, but said this was “not enough” on its own. “Recognition alone is not enough. Britain must face its history and the role we played in creating this conflict,” it said.
The Balfour Declaration was a 1917 letter from Britain's foreign secretary at the time, Lord Balfour, which pledged British support for a “national home for the Jewish people”. This led to the formation of Israel, and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, when British troops withdrew in 1947.
“As inconvenient as the past may be, we do ourselves a disservice by pretending it never happened. An apology wouldn’t solve the conflict but is an initial first step to Britain making peace with its own past,” it said.
The letter marks six months since a legal petition to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, led by 91-year old Palestinian businessman Munib Al Masri, was submitted with the same demands.
The 400-page petition drafted by Ben Emmerson KC and Danny Friedman KC sets out in detail how Britain “unlawfully failed” to recognise Arab self-determination and “lacked proper legal authority" for the Balfour Declaration. The petitioners say they may seek a judicial review if the UK government does not respond by September.
Though the letter does not ask for reparations, under international law an acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the UK would require it to make these. However, lawyers involved in the legal petition have said they are not seeking a specific sum, and that it could be in the form of international and development aid.
“Reparation could also take the form of investing in education – not just in Palestine, but also in Britain, where Britain’s history in this significant part of the globe is still not taught adequately in schools,” said Victor Kattan, a legal adviser to the petition and assistant professor of international law at the University of Nottingham.
“Reparative measures could also include investment in museum exhibitions that honestly confront Britain’s history in Palestine,” he said.
The estimated recovery and reconstruction needs for Gaza had reached $53 billion as of October 2024, according to the World Bank’s Gaza and West Bank Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment. The UK committed to providing £129 million in aid for the year 2024/ 2025.
Mr Al Masri, who was shot by British soldiers as a child but went on to become one of Palestine’s most successful business leaders in oil and gas, said he still has shrapnel from the incident in his body. His grandson was left paralysed for life after being shot by the Israeli military during a demonstration at the Lebanese border with Israel when he was a student.
“What Britain in Palestine did not end when it left in 1948. The policies and violence of that period helped create the conditions for the calamity we are living through today,” Mr Al Masri said. “An official apology is about recognising that history and the harm it continues to cause.”
