A keen gardener, a mother, grandmother, a retired medical doctor, but instead of settling down in Scotland with garden and grandchildren, Monica Spooner had the courage to follow an uncomfortable question. Her book, just out, carries the title: ‘Why didn’t I know?’ with the subtitle ‘Britain’s legacy in Palestine’. She clearly has a gift for friendship, so this book includes many names, many encounters, a lot of listening and learning about Britain’s imperial past. A remarkable story of a small but growing army of people whose consciences have been touched by Britain’s past lies and current refusal to this day to name those lies, and humbly apologize for them. The Balfour Project (https://balfourproject.org/) grew out of another question that Spooner asked herself: how would the centenary of the Balfour Declaration be marked. The Balfour Declaration being a promise by the British government, dated November 1917, to support the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with a small minority Jewish population.
We look at the problems of the Middle East from afar, from an inner moral high ground, for many of us, without knowing, seeing, learning and acknowledging Britian’s long implication in the region. For better and for worst. Mostly for the worst. My personal journey in this direction has taken me pretty deep into Anglo-Irish history, the history of the Indian subcontinent, the story of Mau Mau in Kenya and Britain’s concentration camps there, and before that in South Africa…
In a hopeless situation, what do you do? You care for people, you do the little things that your heart tells you to do, trying to heal some of the wounds of history. We’re only guilty of the things that we actually do, the wrongs we commit. But we can choose to feel responsible for the past, and our nation’s part in creating so much of so many of the messes in the world. Part of our human tragedy is that it may take centuries to repair the damage of a few days or years. And that’s just the way that it is. So do we despair, or do we go on doing what we can for healing?
The centenary has passed, without a British government apology, but the work of the Balfour Project goes on. An Israeli journalist wrote of their centenary event: ‘It wasn’t about Israel. Not even about the Palestinians. It was about Britain and its unique combination of tortured conscience for the sins of the empire and its delusions of grandeur, and of still being a world power capable of influencing events around the world.’
In a chapter, entitled ‘The truth shall set you free’, near the end of her book, she writes: ‘We looked at apology for our ancestors’ dishonesty as a means of peace building but concluded that we cannot apologize for others. We can, however, honestly acknowledge our past.’ She daringly concludes: ‘Justice for Palestinians would mean security for Israel.’
Andrew Stallybrass, 09.12.2024
The book can be ordered here: https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/autobiography/why-didn-t-i-know
