When Munib Al Masri (91) was not yet a teenager in the mid-1940s, he was shot in the leg by British forces while demonstrating near his Nablus home in the then British Mandate of Palestine.
“I was shouting ‘down with Balfour’,” says the wealthy industrialist, referring to the 1917 Balfour declaration, a promise by the British government to Zionists to help them establish a Jewish homeland on the land where Israel now stands.
“And then they shot me.”
Almost seven decades later in 2011, his grandson, also called Munib Al Masri (37), was shot in the back by Israeli forces while demonstrating on the Lebanese border.
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“It was an unarmed protest,” says the younger Al Masri. “We didn’t try to cross the border or anything. But I was shot. Others were shot. Some were killed that day.”
As a result, he is now in a wheelchair.
“I suffered a huge change in my life. Personally, I can forgive. But they [the Israelis] have done the same thing over and over again to many others.”
Last week, the two men led a delegation to Downing Street to present a legal petition to the home of the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. It urges his government to take responsibility for what, they allege, were the crimes Britain committed in the land of Palestine before the establishment of Israel in 1948.
The elder al-Masri, a magnate in his homeland who was also a confidante of Yasser Arafat, is one of 14 Palestinian petitioners in the document drafted by human rights lawyers, in which it is alleged the Mandate was an illegal occupation.
It further alleges that Britain abused Palestinians’ human rights while running the Mandate between 1917 and 1948. It also claims that Britain enabled the divisions seen in the region today due to the manner of its withdrawal from the territory.
The current Israel-Palestine conflict, they say, was “made in Britain”.
The petitioners want this to be acknowledged by the British government, as well as an apology and reparations for Palestinians as part of a newly-launched campaign, Britain Owes Palestine. If the petition is ignored, their advisers say they may take legal action.
The two men, along with several supporters, arrived at the entrance to Downing Street shortly before they were due to present the petition at 3pm last Wednesday.
The elder Al Masri crossed the Whitehall junction supported on one side by Avi Shlaim, an Iraq-born Israeli Jewish historian who helped draft the petition, and on the other by Victor Kattan, a legal academic from Nottingham University and pro-Palestine activist. Al Masri junior in his wheelchair crossed Whitehall alongside them.
They approached the entry gates. One of their supporters standing nearby noted the poignant image of a 91-year-old Palestinian man passing his identity documents through the barred gates to an armed British security officer, who let them inside.
The Irish Times followed them up Downing Street. Al Masri flashed a peace sign at waiting photographers, before the four men approached the famous black door of Number 10. For this moment he stood unaided, holding the 400-page petition.
Kattan rapped twice on the heavy knocker on the prime minister’s front door. The loud thud reverberated up the otherwise silent street, as the petitioners announced their arrival to ask for what they see as justice.
An official emerged and accepted the petition, posing briefly for a photograph. After the official disappeared with it back inside, the men again flashed peace signs.
“The Balfour declaration was the worst thing ever written,” said the elder Al Masri. “It was not ethical, it was not legal and every word in it was not right.”
Al Masri junior said that despite everything he had suffered, he had still optimism on this “historic moment”.
“I am very proud to be here with my grandfather. I am hopeful that, soon, Palestine will get its day.”
