Dear Archbishop Welby
The signatories of this letter are Jews from a wide spectrum of perspectives, united in our outrage at Israel’s savage war on the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
We greatly welcome your recent statement (August 2nd) that, in the ligh
t of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 19th July, Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian Territories must be recognised as illegal and that Israel should immediately withdraw.
We write now to urge you to take full account of the diversity of Jewish opinion on Israel and Palestine, and to widen the range of Jewish organisations that you meet with.
We deplore the unfailingly backing Israel receives from the supposedly official voices of British Judaism, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) and the Chief Rabbi. The BOD regularly insists that it is the sole legitimate voice, and that other Jewish voices, which it does not hesitate to denigrate, must be ignored. Equally concerning is the fact that mainstream politicians and media seem to accept the BOD’s claim to be the sole representative of British Jews. The result is that British Jews are generally portrayed as supporting the occupation of Palestine, the proliferating illegal settlements, and, now, the mass killings in Gaza.
This letter is written against the background of the continuing, unutterable slaughter and maiming of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Israeli state and its proxies - Jewish settlers supported by the IDF – have, under cover of its war in Gaza, escalated their programme of land theft, home demolitions, and pogroms1 in the West Bank.
We ask you to reflect on the shame and horror we feel at being represented as approving of the murderous oppression of Palestinians by the self-declared Jewish supremacist state of Israel. To be tarred with the brush of complicity in pogroms connects us, viscerally, to our own historic experience as victims of pogroms. In the light of this alone, we are resolute in our condemnation of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands.
As Jews, we have a particular responsibility to condemn Israel’s wrongdoing, and to support the right of the Palestinians to live in peace and justice. This is doubly important when the false impression is given that all UK Jews support Israel’s colonisation of Palestine and its present savage attack on the population of Gaza.
In fact, the BOD and the Chief Rabbi represent only a minority of the British Jewish community2. There are no British Jewish elections: to be involved in electing Deputies, one must be a member of a synagogue, or be connected to one of the religious communal organisations (such as the UJIA or Reform Judaism).
Jews who are not members of mainstream synagogues have no means of representation. For example, the UK Charedi community, some 70,000 strong, is not represented by either the Chief Rabbi or the BOD, whose views on Israel they strongly oppose 3.
Assessing the views of Jews in the UK by listening only to the BOD and the Chief Rabbi, is as misleading as assessing political opinion in the UK on the basis of the views of the Synod of the Church of England.
In this regard, we are deeply concerned at the systematic deployment of the charge of antisemitism against those, including Jews, who criticise Israel. The charge of antisemitism has particular impact on members of Muslim communities who, as reported to us, too often feel unable to speak freely on Palestine and Israel. Their perspectives and concerns are being silenced by the amplification of establishment Jewish perspectives.
Many Jews dissent from the position of the BOD and the Chief Rabbi, as witness the array of Jewish organisations critical of Israel – Jewish Voice for Labour, Yachad, Jewish Network for Palestine, Na’amod, Black-Jewish Alliance, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, as well as the Charedi communities4. The national marches for Palestine have from the outset incorporated a Jewish Bloc of sometimes more than one thousand strong.
Attributing, to all British Jews, the views of the BOD and the Chief Rabbi, perpetuates the misleading impression of the UK Jewish community as a monolithic bloc. This falsehood harms community relations, not least because it plays to the antisemitic trope that Jews, by their very nature, are of one mind in pursuit of self-serving and nefarious purposes. The British establishment’s support for Israel, despite the steadily mounting evidence of genocide, strengthens the impression of sinister Jewish power.
The need to nurture positive relations between the Established Church and the Jewish establishment must not overrule the urgent need to recognise and denounce the evil of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.
We reiterate that we were immensely relieved when you issued your statement in the wake of the ICJ’s ruling on the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. We urge you not to wait for the ICJ to come to a judgement on the accusation of genocide, before demanding a halt to Israel’s mass killings in Gaza. Already it is estimated 5 that around 10% of the population of Gaza may have been killed by Israeli attacks and by disease and starvation following the total destruction of their health care system. By the time the Court rules, perhaps years from now, many tens of thousands more will likely have perished.
It is desperately urgent that dissenting Jewish voices should be heard. We write because we believe that as head of the Established Church, you should listen.
We ask that you agree to meet a delegation drawn from the list of signatories of this letter. We would be happy to suggest the membership of such a delegation.
We are yours Sincerely
The undersigned
Footnotes 1 - 4 follow here
