The Britain Palestine Project: Origins, Advocacy, and the Contested Legacy of the Balfour Declaration

 What Is the Britain Palestine Project?

The Britain Palestine Project (BPP) — known as the Balfour Project from its founding in 2017 until 2025 — is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). Its stated mission is to advance equal rights for all people in Israel and Palestine regardless of race or creed, to raise public awareness in Britain of the country’s historical involvement in the region, and to persuade Parliament and Government to demand that international law and fundamental human rights — including the right to self-determination — are upheld in both Israel and Palestine.

The BPP was founded by Monica and Roger Spooner following a visit to the region that prompted them to ask why British school curricula contained so little about Britain’s role in shaping modern Palestine and Israel. Their founding question — “How will Britain mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration in 2017?” — became the seed of an organization that has grown into one of the leading British advocacy groups working on this issue.

In pursuit of this mission, the Britain Palestine Project focuses on these policies:

• Persuade the British Government to acknowledge its historical role in Palestine/Israel.
• Work with politicians of all parties to agree to recognize Palestine as a sovereign, viable, independent state alongside Israel – based on equal rights and international law.
• Maximize the use of the experience of Project supporters to raise awareness of relevant British history at universities and schools.
• Mobilize coalitions of support within Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities in the UK.

The Balfour Declaration (1917): Text and Context

In November 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour addressed a letter to Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, expressing His Majesty’s Government’s support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Of note, the letter contained a significant qualifying clause: that nothing should be done “which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

That qualifying clause — protecting the rights of what was then an Arab Muslim and Christian majority population — has been at the heart of debate ever since. Supporters of the declaration argue it was a carefully balanced statement of principle; critics argue the British government never effectively enforced that protection.

The declaration did not emerge in isolation. It came at the intersection of three competing sets of promises Britain had made during World War I — to Arab leaders, to Jewish Zionist leaders, and to its French ally — all of which pointed toward incompatible futures for the same territory.

The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence (1915–1916)

Between 1915 and 1916, British High Commissioner to Egypt Henry McMahon and Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca exchanged a series of letters in which Britain appeared to promise support for an Arab state or confederation in exchange for an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. The exact geographic scope of the pledge — particularly whether it included Palestine — has been disputed ever since by British and Arab scholars. See the McMahon–Hussein correspondence for a summary of the scholarly debate. Both the Arab and British readings of the letters have legitimate historiographical backing.

The Sykes–Picot Agreement (1916)

In May 1916, British diplomat Mark Sykes and French diplomat François Georges-Picot concluded a secret agreement partitioning much of the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire into British and French spheres of influence. When the agreement became public after the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was widely seen in the Arab world as a repudiation of the McMahon promises. The Sykes–Picot Agreement provides a detailed account of its negotiation, contents, and legacy.

Multiple Perspectives on the Declaration’s Legacy

Historians disagree substantially on how to characterize the Balfour Declaration’s long-term consequences:

Arab and Palestinian perspective: Many Palestinians and Arab historians view the declaration as a foundational act of injustice — a colonial power promising land populated overwhelmingly by non-Jewish Arabs (and some Jewish/Palestinian Arabs) to a movement seeking to establish a Jewish homeland there, without the consent of the existing population.

Zionist and Israeli perspective: Many Jewish and Israeli historians frame the declaration as belated international recognition of the Jewish people’s ancient connection to the land and of the urgent need for a refuge in the face of mounting European antisemitism, which would culminate in the Holocaust. The declaration is seen as a legitimate diplomatic undertaking.

British imperial perspective: Some historians emphasize the declaration’s strategic motivation: Britain needed to secure Jewish support — particularly in the United States and Russia — for the war effort and saw endorsement of Zionist aspirations as diplomatically advantageous.

The Promised Land Museum presents exhibits reflecting all three perspectives alongside primary documents and encourages visitors to weigh competing narratives.

British Mandatory Palestine (1920–1948)

Following World War I, Britain assumed administrative control of Palestine under a League of Nations Mandate. The mandate formally incorporated the Balfour Declaration’s language, committing Britain both to facilitating Jewish immigration and to protecting the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities. See Mandatory Palestine for a full account of the Mandate’s legal structure and administration.

Jewish Immigration and Arab Concerns

Jewish immigration to Palestine (known as aliyah in Hebrew) increased significantly during the Mandate period, especially as antisemitism intensified in Europe through the 1930s. The notes that before 1917, Palestinian Jews, Muslims, and Christians had lived peacefully together, but that waves of immigration and competing political aspirations steadily eroded that coexistence.

Rising immigration, displacement of Palestinian families, and a worker’s union that excluded non-Jews alarmed Palestinian Arab leaders, who argued that demographic change was transforming their homeland without their consent. British administrators struggled to balance their commitments: restricting immigration risked alienating Jewish communities and Zionist organizations, while permitting large-scale immigration inflamed Arab opinion and led to periodic unrest.

The Arab Revolt (1936–1939)

Tensions culminated in the Arab Revolt of 1936–1939, a sustained Palestinian uprising against British rule and Jewish immigration. The British response involved large-scale military operations and the death of approximately 5,000 Palestinians. The Revolt also produced significant internal divisions within Palestinian society and weakened Palestinian political and military capacity at a critical moment.

The 1939 White Paper

The British Government issued the White Paper of 1939 in response to the Arab Revolt. This paper capped Jewish immigration to Palestine at 75,000 over five years and placed restrictions on land sales to Jews. However, the paper was rejected by Zionist leaders as a betrayal of the Balfour Declaration and was also rejected by Arab leaders as insufficient.

During World War II, this cap had severe humanitarian consequences: tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution attempted to reach Palestine but were turned away or intercepted. In addition, organized illegal immigration, known as Aliyah Bet, brought refugees on clandestine ships; the British intercepted many of these voyages. This period is among the most morally complex of British Mandatory rule.

The Jewish Insurgency (1944–1947)

Following the war, Jewish paramilitary organizations — including the Haganah, the Irgun, and Lehi (the Stern Gang) — launched a coordinated, armed campaign against British forces and installations in Palestine. The Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine chronicles the campaign in detail.

One of the most notorious incidents was the Sergeants’ Affair of 1947, in which the Irgun abducted and executed two British Army sergeants in reprisal for the execution of three of its members. The killings provoked outrage in Britain and accelerated the political decision to withdraw from the Mandate.

Historians differ on characterizing these events: Zionist and Israeli historiography often frames the insurgency as a legitimate struggle for independence against an oppressive colonial power; British and some neutral accounts emphasize the terrorism directed at soldiers and civilians; Palestinian accounts note that the insurgency, and British withdrawal, left Palestinian Arabs exposed to a conflict in which they were outgunned.

British Withdrawal and the Nakba (1947–1948)

Britain handed the Palestine question to the United Nations and withdrew from the Mandate in May 1948. What followed included the displacement of between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs and an Arab–Israeli War, resulting in Israel’s declaration of independence., And the Palestinian people refer to their displacement as the Nakba (meaning catastrophe).

The Promised Land Museum Creation of State exhibit presents Jewish Israeli sources that describe the displacement of Palestinian families.

The causes and character of the Nakba have been contested. While it is often taught that Arab leaders urged Palestinians to flee temporarily while Arab armies defeated the new state,  Israeli historians have documented that Palestinian flight resulted from a combination of direct expulsion, fear, and war. Much of the documentation now revealed had been hidden.  The Promised Land Museum’s Creation of State gallery describes the evidence in depth.

The Britain Palestine Project Today: Education and Advocacy

Today the BPP is a substantial civil society organization. Its 2023–2024 Annual Report records a supporter network of more than 10,000 people and an education program that reached more than 1,700 students at 20 schools and universities in a single academic year.

Education

The BPP offers a range of educational resources for both secondary and university students, including source analysis masterclasses, lectures, and free downloadable materials (see BPP Essential Reading). Its flagship curriculum, “Mandatory Palestine: A Social History,” originated as a Fellowship project produced by a university fellow through the BPP’s competitive fellowship program.

Separately, the BPP has produced a documentary film, “Britain in Palestine 1917–1948”, which provides a visual history of the Mandate period.

Parliamentary Advocacy

The BPP co-ordinates the Palestine/Israel Coordination Network at Westminster, which brings together Members of Parliament with relevant NGOs. It has run targeted letter-writing campaigns, the most prominent of which — the “Save Masafer Yatta” campaign — generated more than 9,000 letters to MPs concerning the threatened demolition of Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills under Israeli military orders.

Toward a Balanced Understanding

History is not a series of events passively occurring in the world. Instead, history is built through the decisions (or indecisions) of people.

The BPP’s core historical argument — that Britain made incompatible promises during and after World War I, and that British policy during the Mandate period had profound and lasting consequences for both Jewish and Palestinian populations — is supported by mainstream historical scholarship across the political spectrum.

The majority non-Jewish Arab population of Mandatory Palestine did not consent to a process that displaced them from their homes; the Nakba was for Palestinian families a catastrophe of historic proportions whose consequences are still lived daily.

Two People with a Mission Made a Difference

The Britain Palestine Project led to a series of oscillating actions that tried to appease both Arab and Jewish leaders while maintaining British colonial interests in the Middle East. This process of political “eat your cake and have it too” imploded into internecine conflict between Zionist and Arab paramilitary forces, culminating in the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homeland by Jewish colonists — all while the British government remained on the sidelines.

Monica and Roger Spooner looked at this history and chose to act. They created The Balfour Project (which has grown to become the Britain Palestine Project) to shed light on this uncomfortable history, to educate British schoolchildren on Britain’s role and responsibility in Israel and Palestine, and to change government policy to rectify old wrongs.

You can make a difference and contribute toward peace too.

The Britain Palestine Project started with education; Monica Spooner learned about the contradictory actions of the British Empire in the Middle East.

To kickstart your own education, take a look at their free resources, such as their feature documentary: Britain in Palestine 1917–1948.

Learn more in our Peaceful Palestine gallery.