LONDON: The UK government is to receive a petition calling on it to take responsibility for crimes committed from the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to the end of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1948.
The declaration was a public statement made by the British government expressing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
The petition, compiled by human rights lawyers on behalf of 14 Palestinians, accuses the state of “serial international law violations” and contains more than 400 pages of “incontrovertible evidence.”
Part of a broader campaign called Britain Owes Palestine, it says the UK bears unique responsibility for the situation in the region today.
The petition is a legal mechanism to prompt the government to engage with the campaign, which is calling for acknowledgment of crimes, a formal apology and reparations, following the precedent set by five previous apologies issued by the UK, most recently for the Batang Kali massacre in Malaya in 1948.
