Palestine: Britain’s Unfinished Mandate | Psychistory

13th Jun 2025

Palestine: Britain’s Unfinished Mandate | Psychistory

By Harvey Vickers, writer & editor, Psychistory · June 13, 2025

“One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”
—Arthur Koestler on the 1917 Balfour Declaration

Over a century later, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains deeply interwoven with British history and responsibility. This is not a distant drama; it is a story Britain helped write. To walk inside the minds of this history is to uncover promises made and broken, lives disrupted, and a legacy that binds the UK to Palestine’s fate even today.

The Roots of Conflict: Balfour and the Mandate

1917 – A Promise and a Betrayal

During World War I, London courted Arab leaders with pledges of post-war independence—even as Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour assured Zionist supporters that Britain would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” His letter concluded that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities,” yet Balfour admitted he never intended to consult the Arab majority. That colonial mindset planted the seeds of a bitter conflict.

1920–1948 – The Mandate and Rising Tensions

Under the League of Nations Mandate, Britain was meant to prepare Palestine for self-rule while balancing Jewish immigration and Arab rights. In practice, administrators facilitated Zionist land purchases and allowed hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Europe to settle. Arab Palestinians—mostly peasant farmers—saw their land shrink and their political voice stifled. Inter-communal violence erupted in 1920, 1921 and 1929, culminating in the Great Arab Revolt (1936–1939), which Britain crushed with the help of Zionist militias. By 1945, Palestine was leaderless and traumatised.

1947–1948 – Partition and the Nakba

Bankrupt and war-weary, Britain handed the Palestine question to the UN in 1947. The UN’s partition plan—creating separate Jewish and Arab states—passed despite Arab objections; Britain abstained. As British troops left in 1948, war broke out. Over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced in what became known as the Nakba (“Catastrophe”), barred from returning by the new state of Israel. A British colonial letter had led, thirty years later, to the dispossession of a people—“Britain’s original sin,” in Palestinian memory.

A Legacy of Dispossession: Why History Matters Today

This history is not an antique footnote; it is a living legacy. Generations of Palestinians have known only refugee camps or occupation—realities Britain’s decisions helped create. For many Palestinians, “Balfour” is as familiar as their grandparents’ names. On the Declaration’s centenary in 2017, protests in London and the West Bank demanded a formal apology. Britain’s credibility in the Middle East still hangs in the balance of its past actions.

Britain’s Ongoing Role: Arms, Diplomacy & Public Pressure

Arms and Accountability

The UK supplies components for Israeli fighter jets, drones and targeting systems. Under pressure over civilian casualties in Gaza, in September 2024 Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended some export licences, acknowledging a “clear risk” of misuse under international humanitarian law. Though UK exports to Israel are modest—around £42 million in 2022—the symbolic weight is heavy. Civil society campaigns now call for a full arms embargo.

Diplomacy Double-Standards?

Britain claims to uphold international law, yet has often abstained when the UN General Assembly recognised Palestine (2012) and has, despite vocal criticism of settlements, never formally recognised a Palestinian state. This Janus-faced stance undermines London’s moral authority and frustrates Palestinians seeking legal recourse, from ICC accession to enforcing UN resolutions.

Public Opinion & Activism

A 2024 YouGov poll found Britons who sympathise with Palestinians outnumber those who side with Israel by 2.5 to 1. From mass marches in London to university divestment campaigns, UK civil society has kept Palestine on the agenda. This public pressure is shifting political dynamics: no longer an obscure “foreign problem,” Palestine is now widely framed in the UK as a matter of justice.

June 2025 Flashpoint – Israel’s Strikes on Iran

In June 2025, Israel’s pre-emptive airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites thrust the region into broader conflict. For Palestinians, an Israel–Iran war risks eclipsing their struggle or providing cover for harsher crackdowns in Gaza and the West Bank. For Britain—co-architect of the Iran nuclear deal—it presents a moral and strategic dilemma: endorse an ally’s “right to self-defence” or uphold principles against unprovoked strikes on sovereign territory?

A wider war threatens British forces in the Gulf, market stability and domestic security, as historical “blow-back” shows. Yet it also underlines that Palestine cannot be isolated from regional geopolitics. A just resolution in Palestine removes tinder for wider conflicts; delaying it only perpetuates instability that drags Britain back into crisis after crisis.

Conclusion: Shared History, Shared Responsibility

Britain is not a bystander in the Palestinian narrative; it is a character from its opening scenes. Confronting our imperial past means acknowledging that the echoes of Balfour and the Mandate still reverberate in Gaza’s rubble and West Bank checkpoints. Recognition alone is not enough—Britain must translate principle into practice by:

Pressing for accountability under international law, including arms-license reviews and unbiased diplomacy.
Formally recognising the State of Palestine as an act of moral consistency.
Re-centering the Palestinian question as integral to preventing broader regional wars.

It is now up to Britain’s leaders—and each of us—to decide whether we will remember, reflect and act in the service of justice. The arc of Palestine’s story is still being written. Britain can choose to help bend that arc toward peace.