Palestine–United Kingdom relations

British Foreign Secretary William Hague meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September 2013

Since the Six-Day War, the British government has been active to achieve a diplomatic settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The issue of a Palestinian state was raised already in July 1967 by Labour MP Paul Rose.[5] Margaret Thatcher generally supported a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation and was willing to consider some Palestine Liberation Organization involvement in this solution.[6]

On 6 December 2016 a group of Palestinian and British academics, activists and politicians led by the prominent Palestinian-British Academician Dr Makram Khoury-Machool launched the Palestine 100 Initiative, www.palestine100.net. "Palestine 100 Initiative (P100I) core mission is to keep the candle of hope and the Palestinian flame of activism alive and proliferating. While seeking freedom and independence, it is intended to preserve the broader Palestinian cultural heritage both oral and physical, and to promote it to the wider public, including future generations. Moreover, it aims to act as an umbrella for a vast network of groups that wish to connect and collaborate in different spaces, regions and different languages." During the launching event, which took place in London on 16 December 2016, Baroness Jenny Tonge apologised retrospectively for the release of the Balfour Declaration by the British Government on 2 November 1917, on behalf of her self, friends and family to the Palestinian people.www.palestine100.net. On 2 November 2021 (four days after the 104th anniversary of the Declaration), the Palestine100 held a panel where it was decided to officially approach the British government and ask for apology, compensation and rectifying/withdrawing the Declaration. It was also decided to exhaust all legal avenues in this regard.

In February 2021, the British Consul-General in Jerusalem, Philip Hall, condemned settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories as "illegal and an obstacle to restarting peace talks" between Israel and Palestine.[7] That same month, the Court of First Instance in Nablus ruled that the British government's Balfour Declaration in 1917 was invalid and called on the British government to issue an apology to the Palestinian people.[8] In April, the Palestinian government said that relations had reached a "low point" after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his opposition to an International Criminal Court investigation into alleged war crimes in the Israeli-occupied territories.[9][10] In May, Pro-Palestinian protests were held in London during that month's Israel–Palestine crisis.[11]

Pro-Palestinian demonstration in London in May 2021

In September 2011, Britain said it would recognise Palestine as a state, but only with non-member observer status, rather than full membership, at the United Nations. In October 2014, the UK House of Commons passed a motion which called on the government to recognise Palestine as an independent state.[12] Also in October 2014, the devolved government of Scotland called for recognition of Palestine as an independent state and for the UK to open an embassy there.[13] Jeremy Corbyn, former Leader of the Opposition, is a longtime advocate for Palestinian causes and repeatedly pledged to recognise the country if elected.[14]

• Foreign relations of Palestine
• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom

• Palestine Solidarity Campaign
• Britain Palestine Friendship and Twinning Network