1905 Alien act an anti-semitic law : The antisemitic British Government under Premier Balfour limited the number of Jews coming to Britain. Jews were fleeing persecution from Eastern Europe.  For the next forty three years British  policymakers ,using the Alien Act , limited  the number of Jews emigrating to Britain . Instead between 1917 and 1939 they promoted Palestine as the place to which to flee.

Britain promised all Arabs an independent Arab state in 1915 ahead of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WW1. It then betrayed that promise by  1) in 1916  agreeing colonisation plans with France for  the whole Arab area. and 2)   1917 The British Cabinet agreeing and Balfour  declaring Palestine the homeland of the Jews

At this time 95% of Palestine was Muslim & Christian and 5% Jewish and was governed by a local administration within the Ottoman empire.

This is the origin of a long lasting conflict  in Palestine and was entirely predictable. It set two peoples  in conflict with one another over the same land and one homeland. Britain instead of providing a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution and death , betrayed both the Jews and the indigenous Palestinians.

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1918-1949 : What followed and what were the consequences:

From 1918 on Britain occupied Palestine and continuously refused the demands from the indigenous Palestinians for freedom, independence, democracy and self determination. Meanwhile large scale emigration of Jews to Palestine took place.

1939-1945 Jewish Holocaust Before and during the Holocaust British policy makers continued to limit Jewish access to a safe haven in Britain and from 1939 in Palestine despite the desperate need of Jews to escape systematic annihilation.

In 1947 Britain set out a proposal to partition Palestine and to forcibly remove peoples to make way for one Jewish and one Arab state.. This proposal was never adopted but it set the scene for ethnic cleansing later.

In Feb 1947 British Policymakers wanted out of Palestine and  handed the issue over  to be resolved by the UN . In n Nov 1947 The UN General assembly adopted Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine.  The Jewish state would be 55% of the area. It would  include 400 Palestinian villages. Within the Jewish state Palestinians would be 40% of the population. The majority of people in Palestine were opposed to partition. The Zionist leadership accepted the proposal but Ben-Gurion its leader  said on Dec 3rd 1947   'only a state of 80% Jews is a viable and stable state' .  

Between Dec 1947- May 15th 1948 when the occupation ended, Britains policymakers opted out of any responsibility about what was happening in Palestine. British forces with 75,000 personnel were  stood aside and did not protect the civilian populations over which Britain still ruled. Britain failed to  prevent Zionist forces expelling Palestinian populations from the proposed Jewish state. 

Before Britain had left Zionist forces had driven out  250,000 Palestinians and emptied  of their Palestinian populations 200 villages and the cities/ towns  of Haifa, Jaffa , Tiberias and Western Jerusalem.

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians (what Palestinians called the Nakba-Catastrophe) was nearly half way through by the time Britain had left. The ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is the root cause of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict but as Ilan Pappe says it has been wiped off the history books and not mentioned as the context fow what is happening today.

Britain is responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It did everything that had led up to it and stood aside as it happened..

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Modern times:1973-2010 :

During these years Israel built an apartheid "matrix of control"* in the West Bank ( bantustans) and Gaza (an outright prison). The Israel state, starting in 1973 ,  day by day ,designed, planned , engineered and built the housing & infrastructure that expanded the Jewish state and ensured complete dominance over the Palestinians.. Its army robbed the Palestinian farmers and communities of their land to further that aim.

It created settlements some small, some as large as cities and placed its own Jewish citizens there in a separate, privileged and dominant position.. It created highways (for Jewish settlers only), infrastructure, walls , gates, military installations , watchtowers and armed checkpoints to rob, separate and control the Palestinians. It governed the Palestinians through hostile martial law and not civil law and not human rights law.. All of these activities are inhuman and immoral and are illegal under International Human Rights and International Humanitarian law.link to Israeli charity link to cadfa. link to rights

 

New Labour Government 1997-2010

New Labour policy makers like previous adminstrations did nothing effectively either alone , working with their allies or through the EU or UN to stop the Israeli military juggernaut building Bantustans in the West Bank and a full prison in Gaza. All this accelerated whilst new Labour was in power. In this there are at one with Balfour & subsequent administrations who robbed the Palestinians of their political rights, pretended to safeguard their civil & human rights but failed utterly to do so.

At the same time they fostered an ever closer relationship with Israel , propagandised for it and and rewarded it time and again through the EU etc as it persecuted the Palestinains.

They paid lip service to Palestinian human rights telling the Palestinian to negotiate with Israel for a 'state' as the only recommendation and never campaigned or acted in support of Palestinians having human rights per se. They knew that the two state solution on its own as envisaged by Clinton and Blair would not restore most of the stolen land and homeland of the Palestinians , nor the rights of the Palestinian refugees , nor deal with present killings, human rights abuse, loss and suffering. It was therefore not an alternative to action in support of Palestinian rights .

They played a leading role in destroying Palestinian democracy, in creating and exasperating divisions between Palestinians and in propagating the Israeli 'victim' narrative that enabled it to rob / persecute the Palestinians with impunity. (MORE)