Author Archives: Diana Safieh

‘It is hard to describe it as anything but ethnic cleansing’ By Donald Macintyre If you wanted someone to illustrate the Palestinian concept of sumud you could have done a lot worse than Halima Jaber Nawaja sitting  in front of her house … Continue reading →

The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties, the Israeli magazine +972 and Hebrew-language news site Local Call reveal. … Continue reading →

A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel’s far right to the Zionist left, have differing motivations for turning the war into the new normal By Menachem Klein 9 April, 2024 For most Israelis, the war has become routine. They … Continue reading →

By Peter Ricketts in The New Statesman, 9 April 2024. On 28 August 1995 five shells landed in the marketplace in Sarajevo killing 43 civilians. The Bosnian civil war had dragged on for more than three years, but this incident … Continue reading →

Visit to UK by the Mayor of Masafer Yatt Nidal and Owde with Ambassador Husam Zumlot from the Palestinian Mission. 25 February – 2 March 2024 Sponsored by the Balfour Project By Lara Bird-Leakey Setting the scene In February, 2024, … Continue reading →

As Christians enter into Holy Week, Church leaders from around the world have signed a letter calling for an end to the killing in Gaza. The Balfour Project, which brings together people from all faiths and none, has asked one … Continue reading →

26 March 2024 Andrew Whitley, Chair of the Balfour Project The Balfour Project warmly welcomes UN Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the lifting of all restrictions on the urgent provision of humanitarian aid, at … Continue reading →

Published by Jewish Voice for Labour on Sat 16 Mar 2024 MESA Board Joint Statement with CAF regarding the ongoing genocidal violence against the Palestinian people and their cultural heritage in Gaza The Board of Directors of the Middle East … Continue reading →

Nidal Younis is the mayor of Masafer Yatta and head of the Masafer Yatta village council. He has been active in attempts to save his community since the 1990s. Interview recorded February 29 2024. Masafer Yatta is a Palestinian hamlet … Continue reading →

4 March 2024, New York I am here today because UNRWA, the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees, is at a breaking point. Seventy-five years after its creation by this Assembly as a temporary UN entity, pending a just political … Continue reading →

By Andrew Whitley, Chair of Balfour Project Trustees Often an old piece of furniture is so familiar that it’s only when it is no longer there that one realises how invaluable it was – and how much it will be … Continue reading →

With grateful thanks to Arab Digest, we reproduce below its newsletter of 23 Feb 2024 on the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza and chaos in the Commons.  Arab Digest is a UK media company producing a daily newsletter … Continue reading →

By Sir Vincent Fean, Balfour Project Trustee The Independent, 18 February 2024 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to plan the “evacuation” of Palestinian civilians from the Gazan city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt’s Sinai … Continue reading →

By Menachem Klein This article originally appeared in Logos I am not neutral. As a citizen of Israel, I hurt and cry with my fellow Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs, victims of Hamas’ barbaric attack. Struggle for national liberation does … Continue reading →

By Menachem Klein 2 Feb 2024 Hamas’s attack on 7 Oct and Israel’s retaliation against Hamas and Gaza Strip residents are unprecedented shocking events in their severity, repercussions and impact on both peoples’ collective memory. Only a few of those … Continue reading →

By Jonathan Cook 30 Jan 2024 Israel has long plotted the downfall of UNRWA, aware that it is one of the biggest obstacles to eradicating the Palestinians as a people There is an important background to the decision by the … Continue reading →

By James LandaleDiplomatic correspondent  Britain is ready to bring forward the moment when it formally recognises a Palestinian state, the foreign secretary has suggested. Lord Cameron said Palestinians had to be given a political horizon to encourage peace in the … Continue reading →

Media release: Helen Clark, member of The Elders and former Prime Minister of New Zealand and head of the UN Development Programme, issued the following comment urging UNRWA donors to immediately resume funding so that humanitarian assistance continues to reach Gazans … Continue reading →

Our Government is wrong, says the Balfour Project Our Government has suspended future UK funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is by far the most important and effective provider of humanitarian and development assistance to Palestinian … Continue reading →

Statement: The Elders call for Israel to comply immediately with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protect Palestinians in Gaza from acts of genocide. The Elders also call for Israel’s allies to publicly affirm their … Continue reading →

30 January 2024

By Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun Published by Yedioth Ahronoth’s weekend supplement 7 Days, 12 Jan 2024. Translation by Dena Shunra for The Electronic Intifada, based on the print edition. On the morning of 7 Oct some of the most … Continue reading →

By Roger Spooner   Tom Bateman writing in 2022 gave an example of the brutal methods Britain used to suppress the Arab revolt: “The people of al-Bassa got their lesson in imperial brutality when the British soldiers came after dawn. … Continue reading →

On January 9th 2024, an engaging event took place at Greencoat Place, hosted by Initiatives of Change (IofC UK) in collaboration with the Balfour Project. Peter Shambrook, the author of “Policy of Deceit,” was the central figure of the evening, … Continue reading →

By Marwan Muasher Published 15 January 2024 As Israel’s war in Gaza enters its fourth month, an intensifying debate has unfolded about who should rule the territory when the fighting stops. Some have suggested an Arab force, a notion already … Continue reading →

Sir Vincent Fean, Balfour Project Trustee, writes: Christopher Chessun, the Anglican Bishop of Southwark, visited Palestine from 14-18 January. His incisive statement is here and reproduced below. Bishop Chessun is a patron of this charity, and speaks for the Church of … Continue reading →

Professor Fayyad was in conversation with Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor, director of the Middle East Study Centre (MESC) at Hull University; Sir Vincent Fean, Balfour Project Trustee and former Consul-General in East Jerusalem; and Sir Tom Phillips, MESC Advisory Board member … Continue reading →

Delivered on 12 January 2024 Mr. President, Thank you for this opportunity to address the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For nearly 100 days, what has been unfolding in Israel and the … Continue reading →

I commend the article “War on Gaza: the West’s military action against the Houthis is doomed to fail” by Balfour Project trustee Richard Burden, published in Middle East Eye on 13 January. The article is here and reproduced below. No supporter of … Continue reading →