Britain's Continuing Abdication of Responsibility for the Palestinian Crisis

The continued British silence on the Palestine question is stunning, if we remember that it was Tony Blair who claimed that the war on Iraq was meant to help and solve the Palestine problem. It is in fact Blair's policies that have disabled the European Union from taking a bolder and more constructive role in the face of the destructive pro-Israeli American policies. The last British gesture was back in August 2003 when Sharon was welcomed as a peace statesmen, while in the rest of the continent he is still conceived as a potential war criminal.

Sharon's recent visit to London and his warm welcome there, as well as the overall British Palestine policy is a good time to reflect on Britain's role in the Palestine conflict. There are two kinds of responsibility former empires such as the British Empire bear towards the people they had colonized in the past. There is a historical responsibility, not easily acknowledged, specified or demanded. Then there is a contemporary responsibility in cases where the former empire is still involved in the politics of what used to be its past possession, more practical and definable. With regards to Palestine, Britain bears both responsibilities.

The ethnic cleansing of Palestine began in earnest in the middle of March 1948. This was the phase in which urban Palestine was systematically depopulated by the Jewish forces (the rural area was cleansed after May 1948). The dramatic decrease in the number of Palestinians (70,000 to 4,000 in Haifa, 120,000 to 2,000 in Jaffa and the total expulsion of the Palestinians of Safad and Tabarias) was the result of a premeditated expulsion plan (plan Dalet of March 10, 1948). This was done while these cities were under British rule: British soldiers, officers and officials watched the expulsions and in many cases negotiated a more orderly transfer for the sake of pacifying the towns where according to the UN Britain was still responsible for law and order. They had the power to stop it, but they did not.

According to all the policy papers the British governments had published throughout the mandatory years and according to the UN resolution 181 (the partition resolution) the British government of Palestine was obliged to stop it, but it did not. Moreover, it prevented by force the entrance of mass groups of Arab volunteers wishing to save these communities. In short, in the last days of Mandatory Palestine, with the full knowledge of the British government, almost half of those who became Palestinian refugees were forcefully expelled from their homes.

The historical responsibility does not end there. The British could have taken a stronger stance and demanded an immediate return of the expelled in 1949 and onwards, but it did not. The country they occupied in 1917 and handed over on a silver plate to the Zionist movement was emptied from its indigenous population, but there was still time to allow repatriation and rectification. The only British voice heard was that of the Foreign Office that praised itself for facilitating the annexation of the West Bank to Jordan and the prevention of an independent Palestinian state. Nothing was said about repatriation or condemnation of the expellers.

Because of this historical legacy Britain carries historical and moral responsibility to support the right of return. But there is the contemporary responsibility as well which intertwines with the historical one. Tony Blair is now the person who broke with one gesture (Sharon's visit), the only effective process that had the chance to stop in the distant future the continuous evil inflicted on the Palestinians by the Israelis since 1948. The process in essence was exposing the true nature of the conflict in Palestine. It brought an end to the David and Goliath mythology in Western Europe. It was thanks to British reporters, among others, and British members of the solidarity movement with Palestine that Israel was exposed as an occupier that has to be stopped. The true nature of the Israeli occupation was also slowly discovered in America, but unfortunately the process there was halted by the foolish attack on the twin towers and the Pentagon. Europe did not waver even then and both its civil societies and leaders understood that 9/11 is not a factor that eases in anyway the need to confront the Israeli brutal occupation and condemn the Jewish state's refusal to reach peace with the Palestinian people. The French press, and later the British and Scandinavian press, were quick to expose the lies Israel was spreading about the Camp David summit, explain the reasons for the outbreak of the second Intifada and provide the context in which the uprising turned violent. Europe could not counterbalance the pro-Zionist American policy -- dominated after the 9/11 tragedy by an unholy alliance between neo-cons, Christian Zionists and AIPAC paid politicians. But Europe offered an alternative and much more its societies began exerting effective pressure felt by Israelis, the majority of which have always been hungry to be part of Europe in any way possible.

Blair cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and this verbose politician is now mum when he has to explain why Iraq was invaded. The only card he draws is peace in Palestine. In a transparent act of rewriting history Blair presents the road map as the principal reason for the invasion of Iraq. This ploy can only succeed if Sharon is wooed and legitimized. Wooing Sharon is spitting in the face of the British diplomats and experts at home and in Palestine, who saw daily the trail of victims and destruction left by Sharon ever since his appointment as minister of defense in 1981, his activities as minister of housing, national infrastructure and lately as prime minister. In all these capacities, he financed and encouraged the brutal settlement of the occupied territories, the collective punishment and abuse of the local population.

It would have been acceptable to hear an argument that explains that Sharon has changed and therefore London supports the present peace process. But as long as there was hope that the public back home could be manipulated to believe that there were mountains of WMD in Iraq, Blair did not hesitate to compare Sharon to Saddam (this was just two weeks before Sharon's visit). In the same week that his campaign of deception about Iraq failed, he whitewashed the butcher of Beirut.

If the road to redeem and absolve Sharon and Israel from the crimes they perpetrate in the occupied territories would begin in Downing Street 10, it will mean first and foremost an additional immunity to Israel to carry out, under the protection of peace discourse of Hudna and Road Map, further destruction, ethnic cleansing and massacres of the Palestinian people. Twice within fifty years, a British government would bear responsibility for the human catastrophes that befell on the Palestinian people.