Dozens of MPs and peers have signed a letter calling for a formal British apology over the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which paved the way for the creation of Israel in 1948 and the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the Nakba.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, Labour’s Nadia Whittome and Green MP Carla Denyer are some of the 45 MPs and peers who have signed a letter so far, which also includes a condemnation of historic British abuses in Mandate-era Palestine between 1917 and 1948.

“During its occupation of Palestine, Britain violated a series of international laws that were binding at the time,” said Moran, adding: “The consequences of those actions have profoundly shaped the conflict we witness today, yet successive governments have refused to acknowledge this record or offer a formal apology.”

The move follows a petition to the government in September last year, delivered by Palestinian tycoon Munib al-Masri and written by the Britain Owes Palestine campaign, which called on the UK to issue an apology and provide reparations for its historic role in the dispossession of Palestinians.

Masri, who is 91 years old, said: “I was a child when I was shot by British soldiers, and I still carry that memory – and shrapnel – in my body. But my story is just one among thousands.”

The petition was drafted by legal experts Ben Emmerson and Danny Friedman, alongside three academics.

It sets out evidence that Britain violated international law during the Mandate period, did not recognise the right to Arab self-determination and lacked proper legal authority for the Balfour Declaration and Mandate for Palestine.

The petition also accuses the kingdom of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and home demolitions.

Organisers have given the government until September this year to respond and have said they will move for a judicial review if there is no response.

‘Still not taught in schools’

University of Nottingham academic Victor Kattan, who is the legal adviser to Britain Owes Palestine, said an apology would carry symbolic weight and monetary reparations were not the primary focus of those involved in the petition.

“The reference in the petition to meaningful reparations is not a claim for the payment of compensation. It does not demand any specific sums,” he said.

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“Acknowledging wrongdoing can take various forms. The petitioners have requested an official apology, but reparation could also take the form of investing in education – not just in Palestine, but also in Britain, where Britain’s history in this significant part of the globe is still not taught adequately in schools.”

Arthur Balfour, after whom the declaration was named, was foreign secretary when he gave British support for a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine.

While the declaration promised that the rights of indigenous residents of the land would not be impinged upon, that did not stop the expulsion of roughly 750,000 Palestinians from their homes during the establishment of Israel.

The survivors of the Nakba and their descendants still cannot return to their homes in what is today Israel.

Britain ruled Palestine as part of a mandate following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War until 1948, when it left the territory.