Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Britain’s role revealed

New research is shedding light on the depth of British involvement in the break-up of Palestine, writes Roger Owen

In the vast — and largely ideological — literature produced by the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Britain’s responsibility for the events of
1948 is not often directly discussed, neither polemically nor from a
more academic point of view. It was thus something of a novelty to
attend a whole conference devoted to the subject of “Palestine, Britain
and Empire” at King’s College, London, in mid-May. It was also a great
pleasure to observe how much dispassionate, archive- based research is
being conducted by young scholars whose commitment to old passions and
the rehearsal of stale arguments is much less pressing than that of
many of their older colleagues…. [read on]