Patrons
Tom Brake became Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in October 2012 and was also appointed as an Assistant Government Whip in November 2014. He was the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington 1997-2019. He is Director of Unlock Democracy.
Bishop Christopher read modern history at the University of Oxford, before training for the priesthood. He was consecrated Bishop in Southwark Cathedral in 2005, taking up his appointment as Area Bishop of Woolwich and more widely from 2008 as Bishop for Urban Life and Faith. In December 2014 he was introduced to the House of Lords as one of the 26 Lords Spiritual where he speaks on a wide range of issues including immigration, overseas development and foreign affairs.
Bishop Declan Lang is the ninth Bishop of Clifton. He was ordained a priest on 7 June 1975. Bishop Lang’s Episcopal Ordination was on 28 March 2001 in Clifton Cathedral, Bristol. In 2002 Bishop Lang was appointed an Ecumenical Prebendary of Bristol Cathedral. He he leads the Holy Land Coordination, a group of bishops visiting the Holy Land annually to support Christians there.
Peter Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been a Member of the House of Lords since October 2015. Hain was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Neath between 1991 and 2015, and served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He was the Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005 and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007 under Blair, and as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales from 2007 to 2008 under Brown. He was also Honorary Vice-President of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
Andrew Rankin Cowie McLellan CBE is a minister and former moderator in the Church of Scotland. He was Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland from 2002 to 2009. He is also author of several books.
Baroness Morris is the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Jordan, Kuwait and Palestine. She is the Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords, Chancellor Emeritus at Bolton University and the President of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
John Lawrence Pritchard is a Church of England bishop. He was the Bishop of Oxford from 2007 to 2014. He is in the Open Evangelical tradition.
Danny Rich is a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Barnet. He was, until 2020, the Senior Rabbi and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom.
Sir Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex from 1997 to 2019, having previously served as the MP for Crawley from 1983 to 1997. Soames was Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 1994 to 1997 in the government of John Major.
A lawyer, a businesswoman, a campaigner and a cabinet minister, Sayeeda Warsi has had many roles, but she is best known for being the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet. In August 2014 she resigned from Government citing the Government’s “morally indefensible” policy on Gaza.
Dr Philippa Whitford is a Scottish National Party politician and a breast surgeon. She was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Central Ayrshire in May 2015 and was re-elected in 2017 and 2019. She is the SNP Health spokesperson in the House of Commons.
Trustees
Andrew Whitley succeeded Sir Vincent Fean as Chair of the Balfour Project on 1 June 2022. He has been a Trustee since 2018. A retired senior United Nations official, Andrew has spent much of his working life in the Middle East, including seven years in Israel and Palestine. He is also a former journalist with the BBC and Financial Times.
Sir Vincent Fean is member of the British Diplomatic Service (DS) 1975-2014, his last post was as Consul-General, Jerusalem (2010-14). Before Jerusalem, he was Ambassador to Libya, and previously High Commissioner to Malta.
Richard Haines Burden is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield from 1992 to 2019. He served as a Shadow Transport Minister from 2013 to 2016 and again from 2016 to 2017
Michael became the first Bishop of Swindon in 1994, and went on to lead the Church of England mission agency, USPG. He has a particular concern for the churches in the Holy Land, and for the contribution of all faiths – Christian, Muslim and Jewish – to the search for peace with justice in Palestine and Israel. He is currently Preacher to Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court, and an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Southwark.
Nicholas’s ordained ministry has been spent in South London as a Parish Priest; in Merseyside as Precentor of Liverpool Cathedral and then as Rector of Liverpool; and in Sussex as Dean of Chichester Cathedral until 2014. Prior to ordination, Nicholas trained for retail management, and was a Welfare Officer at H.M. Prison, Pentonville. His book Pardon and Peace – a reflection on the making of peace in Ireland, was published, to much acclaim, in 1995.
Dr Imad Karam is the Executive Director of Initiatives of Change International, a global network of people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, whose mission is to inspire, equip and accompany change makers in the pursuit of a just and peaceful world. Imad is also an award-winning documentary film-maker.
John McHugo is the author of A Concise History of the Arabs, Syria: A Recent History, and A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi’is. He has also published on the legal interpretation of UNSCR 242, the British and French Mandates in the Middle East, and the Jewish Egyptian nationalist James Sanua (Ya’qub Sanu’). He was a partner in a City of London law firm and had worked on international boundary disputes in the Middle East.
Educated at the universities of East Anglia and Cambridge, Dr Peter Shambrook holds a PhD in Modern Middle Eastern history. He served as the Programme Director of British-Arab Exchanges (1974-1987) and authored French Imperialism in Syria, 1927-1936. His current research is focused on British government policy regarding the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence and he is a Historical Consultant to The Balfour Project.
Graduated in medicine from London University and practised Community Paediatrics in Edinburgh. Mother of 3, grandmother of 4. She was trustee of Initiatives of Change for 18 years. After her first visit to Israel and Palestine in 2008 she perceived and asked the question ‘How will Britain mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration?’. Gradually more people joined in what became informally known as the Balfour Project, and whose name has since acquired credibility. The project became a charity in 2017 and Monica was Chair of Trustees for its first year.
Roger had an academic career in immunogenetics. He edited the journal Animal Genetics and his OBE was for services to animal breeding research. He chaired British-Arab Exchanges for 12 years, but it was not until 2008 that he first learnt about Britain’s contradictory promises relating to Palestine. He has been involved in the development of the Balfour Project since then, designing and managing the project’s website which reached 44000 page views a month by the time of the Balfour Declaration centenary.
Dr. Starkey was a Member of the House of Commons from 1997 to 2010.
Before entering Parliament, Dr. Starkey had a double career as a distinguished research scientist and as a politician in both local and national politics. She qualified as a biochemist and followed a career in medical research, leading her own research group in Oxford. She won a seat on Oxford City Council, was Chair of Finance for six years, and Council leader for three years. From 1993-1997, Dr. Starkey was the National Chair of the Local Government Information Unit, which represents over 120 Councils across the country. Dr. Starkey has held a number of important Parliamentary posts since she was elected in 1997: Between 1999-2001 she was a member of the Modernisation of the House of Commons Select Committee; in 2002 she became PPS to Denis MacShane, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; in 2005, Dr. Starkey was made Chair of the Select Committee for Communities and Local Government.
Retired from paid work (teaching/IT support for special needs) 10 years ago. Cofounded a charity for abused men 12 years ago and am trying to retire from that. Spent 3 unforgettable months in the West Bank in 2017 with EAPPI, and now try to keep the accounts in order for BP.
When not bent over a laptop, I spend as much time as possible hillwalking, cycling, ceilidh dancing, gardening and looking after youngest grandchild (2) and mother (95).