TfL moves means it’s end of the road for taxis bearing anti-Balfour slogan
tus Professor of War Studies at Kings College London, on a panel sponsored by the JC, at the JW3 community centre on Monday.
Mr Marshall described Ms Thornberry’s comments as “disgraceful.” He contrasted it with the views of Boris Johnson, who had written in a Sunday newspaper article the previous day that he could see “no contradiction in being a friend of Israel and a believer in that country’s destiny, while also being deeply moved by the suffering of those effectively dislodged by its birth. The vital caveat of the Balfour Declaration intended to safeguard other communities has not been fully realised.”
Mr Marshall said: “Now that’s what I call even-handed and statesmanlike.”
Prof Freedman rejected the argument that the Balfour Declaration had effectively triggered a 100-year conflict between the Jews and the Arabs.
“The movement of Jews into IsraelPalestine didn’t start after Balfour, it was already well under way. There were already tensions — I think they would have carried on developing.
But he did view Balfour as “a destabilising factor”.
He explained: “I think it became more of a destabilising factor after the state [of Israel] was founded and more of a destabilising factor after the Arabs had been humiliated when they tried to crush Israel in the wars of independence, which many people thought Israel was bound to lose.” Mr Marshall was optimistic about the possibility of peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“If the current rate of engagement that’s been going on in the last five years [between Israel and a number of Arab countries] continues over the next five years, I think you could have enough political pressure put on both sides by the real players in the region to actually have a genuinely good stab again at a wider ‘Oslo’[peace accord] — within five years.
“A lot of that will be based on economics and great power politics, and the realisation that has seeped through, that the Middle East is not all about Israel and Palestine, it’s about a lot more.”
LONDON TAXIS displaying adverts which highlight Palestinian objections to the Balfour Declaration breach official policy and are “deeply offensive” to the Jewish community, Transport for London has confirmed.
Activists had launched a “make it right” campaign in which 52 black cabs displayed a logo to “raise awareness about the consequences of the Balfour Declaration”.
The campaign, commissioned by the Palestinian Mission to the UK, also saw adverts displayed at underground stations and on buses. In a letter seen by the JC, Claire Alabdalla, TfL’s customer services adviser, confirmed that black cabs carrying the adverts were deemed to be “unfit” to hire passengers.
Ms Alabdalla wrote: “This signage is not authorised by TfL and breaches our policies regarding advertisements on taxis licensed by us. Political statements of this nature are never acceptable. Our licensed taxi drivers have a duty to be seen as politically neutral at all times.”
She added: “Taxis found to be displaying this signage are liable to be issued with ‘unfit’ notices by our compliance officers, which means they cannot be used to ply for hire again until the offending advertisement has been removed.”