When asked how Great Britain could help end the conflict over Kashmir during a visit to Pakistan in 2011, Prime Minister David Cameronsaid: "I don't want to try to insert Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world's problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place."
The UK passed a non-binding motion to recognize a legitimate Palestinian state last week, stealing headlines and winning some hearts. Still, something was off.
There was an elephant in the Parliament last monday - was it Britain’s guilt?
That Britain once played a pivotal role in Palestinian affairs, coupled with the side-lined approach it takes today, makes for a relationship that’s wrought with challenges and consistent contradictions.
Most Palestinians will not easily forget the British role in cementing an Israel back in the early 20th century. It was a move that seemed to sell them down the river, quite literally, into Jordan to uphold a bargain with the other promised people, squashing any potential for a viable Palestinian state.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
So before we all go patting British backs for being so ‘enlightened’, it’s worth acknowledging their hefty historic role, just as Cameron noted in 2011. From drawing borders with a ruler to throwing the fate of Palestine into UN hands, many remember a heavy-handed British narrative of past, and that’s not so easily rewritten.
Wait Britain sponsors Palestinian statehood? Not so fast! 10 reminders of things the British establishment has to feel guilty about re: Palestine. This is our roundup of British prevarications and dabblings, and how they’ve left us asking if this week's landmark parliamentary motion for recognition of a proto-Palestine is simply too little, too late?
