Avi Shlaim, an Oxford historian, has outlined the case for Britain to acknowledge its historical responsibility for Palestinian displacement, according to a discussion published by the Middle East Monitor, a London-based advocacy outlet. The "Britain Owes Palestine" campaign has filed a legal case demanding that the UK recognise its role in events that Palestinians call the Nakba, the mass displacement that accompanied Israel's 1948 founding.
Shlaim examined Britain's actions during the League of Nations mandate over Palestine, which lasted from 1920 to 1948, and the repression of Palestinians during that period. He discussed how British colonial policy contributed to the conditions that led to Palestinian displacement and the establishment of the Israeli state.
The campaign argues that accountability and reparation are possible today, according to the discussion. The legal case represents an effort to establish a formal British acknowledgement of responsibility for events a century earlier.
