The British Government has recently sanctioned companies involved in Israel’s E1 settlement in the West Bank – a project that, if completed, would split the territory and render a two-state solution all but impossible. Last week, I joined 138 other Labour MPs in writing to the Prime Minister to urge a ban on trade with illegal settlements altogether.

Both are welcome but they also raise the uncomfortable question of Britain’s own role in creating the very crisis we are now trying to address. What is Britain’s responsibility for what has happened to the Palestinian people and what does that require of us today?

This question is at the heart of the Britain Owes Palestine campaign, which has submitted a 400-page legal petition to the Government documenting Britain’s conduct during the Mandate period from 1917 to 1948.

The Balfour Declaration in 1917 committed Britain to supporting a Jewish national home in a land that was over 90 percent Arab, without the consent of the people who lived there and in breach of commitments the........

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