NLJ this week: Britain’s unpaid account

The authors say a 400-page petition seeking an account of British conduct in Palestine between 1917 and 1948 has been unanswered for a year. It alleges breaches of the Hague Regulations, unlawful political and demographic change under Britain’s occupation, and crimes during repression of the Arab Rebellion.

The authors contend the case is assessed by the law existing at the time, not modern standards, and reject characterising reparation as either denying Israel’s existence or demanding a ‘blank cheque’.

They seek disclosure, acknowledgement, a formal apology and good-faith investigation of further remedy. Britain must, they say, confront the legal architecture it helped create.