UK urged to act on colonial-era war crimes case after recognising Palestinian state

The United Kingdom recognised a Palestinian state this week, a decision that activists say should be matched by accountability for colonial-era abuses. A group representing 13 Palestinian families filed a 400-page petition with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office earlier this month seeking an official apology and reparations for alleged war crimes committed during the British Mandate in historic Palestine from 1917 to 1948. The petition notes a long record of violence, exile and repression that the signatories say shaped the present-day grievances of Palestinians and continues to affect communities today.

Victor Kattan, a public international law scholar who speaks for the petitioners, said Britain bore responsibility to acknowledge what happened in order to “advance understanding and knowledge” of its past. In remarks to the BBC during this week’s United Nations conference in New York, he welcomed Britain’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state but argued that recognition alone cannot resolve the historical problems Palestinians regard as ongoing. “Britain denied self-government to the Palestinian community... It empowered a high commissioner to behave like a dictator [and] Palestinian people bore the brunt,” Kattan said. “Recognition alone does not deal with all these historic problems which for Palestinians are not history but the living reality to this day.”

Officials at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office would not confirm whether ministers had been briefed on the petition, stating that they do not routinely comment on such matters. BBC reporting, however, indicates that Deputy Prime Minister and former Foreign Secretary David Lammy has asked officials to review the submission. The petition documents three decades of alleged abuses by UK forces in the Mandate period, culminating in 1948 as British rule ended and the State of Israel was proclaimed. The group alleges murder, torture, expulsion and collective punishment that, they say, repressed the Arab Palestinian population and amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A 2022 BBC review of historical material cited by the petition included accounts of arbitrary killings, arson of entire villages, the “caging” of civilians in the open air, the use of human shields by strapping people to the fronts of military vehicles and the introduction of home demolitions as a form of collective punishment. Some of the incidents described occurred under formal policy guidelines for British forces at the time or with the consent of senior officers, the BBC reported, underscoring the contested and difficult nature of events during the Mandate.

The period’s larger arc began with Britain’s takeover of Palestine during World War I, followed by the 1917 Balfour Declaration promising a national home for the Jewish people. In the decades that followed, violence intensified between Arabs and Jews. The Arab Revolt of 1936–1939 was brutally suppressed, with some estimates suggesting significant Palestinian casualties and displacement among the population. The 1948 termination of the Mandate and the subsequent creation of the State of Israel marked a turning point, after which British forces withdrew rapidly amid broader regional conflict.

The petitioners say the UK should acknowledge these events and make amends through an official apology and reparations, arguing that such measures would contribute to a fuller historical reckoning and help contextualize the present-day debate over accountability in former colonies. They point to recent steps by the UK toward acknowledging colonial-era wrongdoing as a possible precedent, including this year’s apology for the Batang Kali massacre in Malaya and a settlement over abuses during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s.

Internationally, Britain, France and several other states moved to recognise a Palestinian state this week, joining more than 150 countries that already extend recognition. The decision drew praise from Palestinian leadership and supporters, while Israel and the United States criticized it, saying the move could complicate mediation efforts over the Gaza war and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The petitioners and their advocates say that recognition must be accompanied by responsibility for historical actions—rather than treated as a symbolic gesture—to meaningfully address a past that continues to influence the region today.

If ministers decide to authorize a formal response, it would mark a notable shift in how the UK approaches unresolved colonial-era grievances in disputes that stretch back to the Mandate era. The petition’s organizers emphasize that accountability is essential not merely as a matter of historical record but as a foundation for broader reconciliation. Their appeal stresses that acknowledging wrongdoing and offering a path to reparations could help illuminate a more accurate public record and, they hope, contribute to a more constructive international dialogue about the legacies of empire and the path toward lasting peace in the region.