A campaign demanding that the UK issue a formal apology for supporting the idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East almost a century ago is growing in popularity after the launch of a new parliamentary petition.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Jenny Tonge
hosted an event at the House of Lords announcing the launch of the Palestinian Return Centre’s (PRC) initiative to pressure the UK government into acknowledging its role in “almost a century of Palestinian suffering” and the UK’s wider colonial impact on the region last Tuesday.
If the petition (currently pending approval) reaches more than 100,000 signatures, parliament will have to consider a debate on the subject.
The Balfour Declaration, as it is known, was a 1917 letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, head of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, promising support for the idea of a Jewish homeland in historical Palestine as long as the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities were not “prejudiced.”
Britain ended up governing Palestine shortly afterward under mandate rule after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI.
The controversial meeting in Westminster caused outrage in Israel after video from the event surfaced showing one audience member claiming “If anybody is anti-semitic, it’s the Israelis themselves,” going on to say Jews antagonised Adolf Hitler.
Baroness Tonge was criticised for not appearing to challenge the unidentified man. She later said that she did not hear his full “rant”.
The Lib Dems decided to suspend Baroness Tonge pending an investigation into the event, which led her to announce that she has quit the party. The PRC also distanced itself from the comments, which they said were made by a member of the ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta group.