Charles Dance says Britain “f***ed up” Middle East with Balfour Declaration

In a recent interview with the Telegraph, veteran actor Charles Dance, known for his roles in Game of Thrones and The Imitation Game, bluntly attacked Britain's historical role in the Middle East .

The actor said Britain had "f***ed up" the region with the 1917 Balfour Declaration and asserted that peace would not be achieved until France and England apologized and the declaration was "unpicked".

“I’m a bit obsessed at the moment with what’s happening in the Middle East,” Dance said.

“Anyone with a conscience should be. Even if [the war] stopped tomorrow, there would not be peace in the Middle East until the Balfour Declaration is unpicked. France and England need to announce: ‘Sorry, we f----d up’.”

His comments reflect a long-standing interest in the conflict, which includes working on a docudrama series with Al Jazeera in 2020 and condemning genocide at the Palestine Festival of Literature.

Following Oct. 7, he was among many actors who signed an open letter calling for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid for Gaza, and an end to support for ‘Israel’.

The Balfour Declaration was a 67-word letter issued on November 2, 1917 and signed by Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour.

Tt publicly declared Britain's support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people".

The declaration included a caveat that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".

For Zionists, the declaration was a landmark triumph that provided international legitimacy for a Jewish homeland after centuries of persecution and diaspora .

The declaration's vague wording, particularly the phrase "national home," was later interpreted by Balfour and then-Prime Minister David Lloyd George as always having meant "an eventual Jewish state" .

At the time it was issued, the indigenous Arab population made up over 90 percent of Palestine's inhabitants.

The declaration disregarded the rights of the indigenous majority and laid the groundwork for the 1948 Nakba, or "catastrophe," when over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled or fled their homes.