Britain Palestine Project

The 29th of September marks the centenary of when the League of Nations ‘Mandate Agreement’ for Palestine entered into force in international law.  This legal instrument purported to put the commitment to establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine made by Arthur Balfour in the eponymous Declaration of 1917—then merely a non-legally-effective statement—on a sound international legal footing.  It paved the way for how the UK administered the Mandate. The Agreement purported to bypass the legal obligation in Article 22 of the League Covenant to provisionally recognize statehood of and for the inhabitants of the Mandate—people who were overwhelmingly Arab Palestinians—at the time the Mandate commenced. And it purported to permit the UK to maintain its administration, for what turned out to be a quarter of a century, so as to enable Jewish migration to, and Jewish institutions of self-government to be established in, what could then be proclaimed the state of Israel, as happened, covering part of the territory of the Mandate, in 1948.  In international law, then, the key date for the supposed legal basis for all that happened in that period is 1923, not 1917.  

On the eve of the centennial anniversary of that date, this lecture will present a new argument, challenging the received wisdom about the legal effectiveness of the Mandate Agreement.  For the first time it will be explained that the body adopting the Agreement—the League Council—did not have the legal power to modify the obligations in the League Covenant, and, as such, the requirement to implement provisional statehood in Article 22 remained the operative legal obligation binding on the UK. Consequently, by failing to enable Palestinian statehood a century ago, the UK breached international law, and this can form the basis for a claim for reparations by the Palestinian people today.

The lecture is based on Dr Wilde’s article published in the Journal of the History of International Law, ‘Tears of the Olive Trees: Mandatory Palestine, the UK, and accountability for colonialism in international law’.

Ralph Wilde is a member of the Faculty of Laws at UCL, University of London. He is an expert in international law. His current writing focuses on extraterritorial human rights, migration and refugee protection, and international law and the Palestinian people. His previous work on the concept of trusteeship over people and territorial administration by international organizations includes his book International Territorial Administration: How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away(OUP), awarded the Certificate of Merit of the American Society of International Law. He previously served on the Executive bodies of the American and European Societies of International Law, and the International Law Association, and is the past recipient of the UK Philip Leverhulme Prize and the Peace Fellowship of the Åland Peace Institute. He also provides legal advice and representation to states, international organizations, and NGOs, and is currently acting as Senior Counsel and Advocate representing the 22 states of the League of Arab States in the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem Advisory Opinion case before the UN International Court of Justice.

An epic journey to uncover a Holocaust inheritance leads relentlessly to discovering a Nakba inheritance: two catastrophes that are very different, but very connected. Can they both be heard and understood? With personal testimony, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability

Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability

Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability

Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

Separate & Unequal—Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch

Access to Health—Melanie Ward, Medical Aid for Palestinians

Children’s Rights & Child Prisoners—Miranda Cleland, Defense for Children International—Palestine

Freedom of Movement, Expression and Assembly—Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability

Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability

Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

2023 CONFERENCE: Human Rights in Palestine: Responsibility and Accountability

Wednesday 17 May at Church House, London

Richard Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations.

John Dugard is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specialisations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, human rights, criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission, the primary UN institution for the development of international law, and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

Michael Lynk is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, and was the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. 

Matthew Teller’s “Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City” (Profile Books, 2022) was named a Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph. Matthew writes for the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, Financial Times and other global media. He has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and World Service, and has reported for Radio 4’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ from around the Middle East and beyond. He is the author of several travel guides, including the Rough Guide to Jordan. His previous book was "Quite Alone: Journalism from the Middle East 2008–2019".