Britain Palestine Project

Sir Vincent Fean is a retired 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. 

Vincent advocates equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, and British Government recognition of the state of Palestine alongside Israel on pre-June 1967 lines. He is a Trustee of the Balfour Project.

Rula Salameh is a veteran journalist, community organiser, and the Education and Outreach Director in Palestine for Just Vision, an organisation that fills a media gap in Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement. 

She produced three of Just Vision’s films - Budrus (2009), My Neighbourhood (2012), and Naila and the Uprising (2017) - and has led the team’s public engagement efforts across Palestinian society for over 15 years. 

Since 2019, she has contributed a weekly column to Ma'an News covering Palestinian social issues from the perspective of grassroots communities. In addition to her work with Just Vision, Rula is the host of Falasteen al-Khair (“Philanthropy in Palestine”), one of the most popular TV shows in Palestine, and the General Director of the NGO Falasteen al-Khair.

Rula was one of the founders of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in 1993 following the Oslo Accords. She has served as the Middle East Liaison for the organisation Peace X Peace, as the Project Coordinator for Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy (MEND), and established a computer lab and children's library in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem through her work with Refugee Trust International. Rula holds an international diploma in Computers in Business and Management from Cambridge International College and attended Birzeit University in Ramallah. She is a member of the International Federation of Journalists.

Nadav Tamir is the Executive Director of J Street Israel and an Advisor for International and Governmental Affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.

Nadav served as the Senior Policy Adviser to the President of Israel during the last 3 years of the presidency of Shimon Peres.

Nadav returned to Israel in 2010 after serving as the Consul General of Israel to New England at the Consulate General of Israel in Boston for four years. He then served at the Policy Planning unit of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs until July 2011 when he joined the President’s Office.

Nadav joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993 and the following year began to serve as the Policy Assistant to the Foreign Minister. Nadav had the privilege to serve as a policy assistant under three Foreign Ministers – Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and David Levy. He was then promoted to the position of Political Officer at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1997. In 2001, Nadav was granted the position of Advisor to the Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem.

Nadav was the chairperson of the Wexner – Israel Alumni Association. He was chosen as a Wexner Israel Fellow and earned his Master’s in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2004. Nadav is on the steering committee of the Geneva Initiative and on the board of the Mitvim think tank for regional foreign policy.

Prior to joining the Ministry, Nadav served as a security officer at the Residence of the President of the State of Israel, while simultaneously earning his B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Nadav was born and raised on Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel. He began his career in public service in 1980 in the IDF, where he eventually served as a company commander and retired with the rank of Major. He is married to Dr. Ronit Tamir, a dance educator, and is the father of Maya, Ido, and Naama.

Claire Nicholl is Save the Children’s Regional Humanitarian Policy & Advocacy Lead for the Middle East. She has been working with the agency’s team in the occupied Palestinian territory for many years, and is the author of several reports on the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. This work has been underpinned by her time spent with former detainees and other children and young people in the oPt, including supporting the Gaza children’s council. 

Jude Lanchin qualified as a solicitor in 1994, after a career in community-based work. She is an associate at Bindmans. She has maintained a strong interest in the rights of the child in the oPt and was a key part of a delegation of British jurists which visited Israel and Palestine in 2011 in a mission funded by the Foreign Office. The delegation was tasked with investigating the situation of Palestinian children in Israeli detention. They produced a report, which is available here. Today, Jude will discuss this report and developments since 2011. 

Professor Nick Maynard trained at Oxford University, Guy’s Hospital, London, and Melbourne, Australia. He is a Consultant Upper GI Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Associate Professor of Surgery at Oxford University. He set up the Oxford Oesophagogastric Cancer Centre in 1997 and is the Senior Surgeon and Clinical Lead. From 2021 to 2023 he was President of the Association of Upper GI Surgery for Great Britain and Ireland (AUGIS), demitting in September 2023.

Nick first visited Palestine in 2008, and since 2010 he has been visiting Gaza regularly. Each October he leads a group of Oxford Consultants specialising in surgery, medicine, paediatrics, and obstetrics to Gaza to teach medical students from the Islamic University of Gaza and Al Azhar University. Nick also works with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP UK) as part of their surgical team to travel into Gaza to carry out and teach advanced upper gastrointestinal surgery for cancer and benign diseases. In December 2023 with MAP Nick led the first UK medical mission into Gaza during the current conflict and worked at Al Aqsa Hospital for 2 weeks. He will be returning to Gaza shortly.

Nick joined the Board of Trustees of IMET2000 (International Medical Education Trust) in 2016 and has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2018.

In conversation with Andrew Whitley, Balfour Project Chair. 

From 2010 to November 2018 Charles Bird, OBE, was a Teaching Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK, and was Course Tutor for the Certificate and Advanced Certificate in Terrorism Studies.

Between 1986 and 2010 he was a member of HM Diplomatic Service, specialising in the Middle East, conflict, post-conflict, terrorism and counter-terrorism issues. Postings included to the UAE (1988–92) with involvement in Desert Storm, Belgrade (1992–93) during the war in former Yugoslavia, Macedonia (1999) for the Kosovo crisis, Greece and Nigeria.

During tours in the UK, his jobs included Deputy Head of Middle East Department, Head of South Asia Department, and leading the project that resulted in the formation of the interdepartmental (FCO, MoD, DfID) Stabilisation Unit, which co-ordinates the UK Government’s post conflict reconstruction work in, amongst other places, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2003 he was seconded back to the military and was on the staff of the General Officer Commanding Ist (UK) Armoured Division in Iraq, both during and for several months after the invasion.

Between 2004–2008 he was on secondment to the MoD working on issues related to counter-terrorism.

Daniel (Danny) Seidemann has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. He has been a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 1987. Since 1991, he has specialized in the geopolitics of contemporary Jerusalem, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the city.
Danny and his colleagues founded, Terrestrial Jerusalem, and are frequently consulted by senior decision-makers and governmental bodies on matters pertaining to both unfolding developments in Jerusalem and the broader issues relating to a permanent status agreement. He has also been conducting ongoing discussions on Jerusalem issues within the Arab world, and with Christian faith communities and diaspora Jewish communities. He has participated in numerous Jerusalem-related projects, colloquia and track-two deliberations.

In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the title of honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his work in Jerusalem.

The Balfour Project and Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance, jointly presented this timely webinar.

While the world’s attention is on the Gaza war, very bad things are happening fast in the West Bank. Susan Power, Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al-Haq in Ramallah, analysed the Israeli lockdown of the West Bank and the licence given to settler violence and forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands.

Mr Owda Hathaleen gave an eye witness account of the pressures being brought to bear on the villagers of Masafer Yatta to abandon their homes and livelihoods.

They recommended actions to safeguard lives and people’s futures.

Owda Hathaleen, from Umm Al-Khair village, Masafer Yatta, a human rights activist, writer and an English teacher.

Dr. Susan Power is Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man. 

Online webinar hosted on 21 November 2023

In Search of the River Jordan is the new book by award-winning writer and journalist James Fergusson. Travelling through Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, Fergusson describes how historic water resources such as the Jordan River and the Dead Sea have been diverted or depleted, and how the unequal competition for remaining water resources dominates the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

This webinar addressed broader contexts, including the war in Israel-Gaza and the COP28 Climate Change summit in Dubai (which will starts a few days after this webinar) and the issue of long-term environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity that is being caused by water poverty in the West Bank and Gaza.

James Fergusson is a British journalist and foreign correspondent who has written for publications such as The Economist, The Times and the Daily Mail, and has published seven books, including A Million Bullets about the British army’s involvement in Afghanistan.