Balfour should be remembered for his act of colonial aggression in Palestine

The belated soul-searching about monuments to British apologists for slavery and colonialism that has been forced by Black Lives Matter is welcome.

We must add to this the lies on a plaque in a small East Lothian kirk which celebrate the architect of one of the worst colonial aggressions of the 20th century, the impact of which is still experienced today.

The memorial plaque in Whittingehame Kirk to Arthur James Balfour states that he “advanced truth, righteousness and peace in the world”.

On the contrary, Balfour, who was laird of Whittingehame, in 1917 while he was Foreign Secretary, championed the ‘Balfour Declaration’, which threw British power behind the Zionist colonial project in Palestine.

The Declaration was designed to deny political rights to the Palestinians and was implemented through the British Mandate for Palestine. It justified the massacres and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 indigenous Palestinians

in 1948, in what has become known as al Nakba – the catastrophe.

This remains the world’s longest standing refugee crisis, as today Israel denies the right of some five million Palestinian refugees to return to their family home, in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 194. The Declaration also enabled Israel to privilege “Jewish Nationality” and thereby continue to deny full political rights to its Palestinian citizens.

Balfour was a colonialist, racist and antisemite, who saw the transfer of Jews from Europe to Palestine through the lens of Christian Zionism and British spheres of influence.

He perpetrated conflict and injustice in the world in the interests of white supremacy and British interests.

It is time to correct the lies told about the past, replace the plaque in Whittingehame with a commemoration of Balfour’s victims and, by way of reparation, throw our political weight behind the call for the Palestinian right of return.

Palestinian lives matter.

(DR) EURIG SCANDRETT Leuchie North Lodge

North Berwick

Much as I strongly support the BLM movement I do hope we can keep a sense of historical proportion in dealing with the attitudes of people like Winston Churchill and Field Marshallmontgomery,whichwere sadly commonplace. I was brought up in colonial Kenya where schooling was strictly separate for Europeans, Africans and Asians – presumably in accordance with the complacent policies of successive British governments and parliaments – and I came into British politics largely motivated by opposition to apartheid.

We should instead rejoice that times have changed and determine to root out what remains of racism wherever it is to be found nowadays.

It is only too easy for organisations such as Britain First to use social media to organise thuggish demonstrations – the authorities should not hesitate to counter them.

LORD STEEL OF AIKWOOD

Selkirk