Any dissent is too much for the Board of Deputies
Deep cracks are appearing in that most pro-Israel of institutions, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD).
On 16th April a letter headed “As British Jews we can no longer stay silent on the war in Gaza” was published in the Financial Times, signed by no fewer than 36 of the Board’s 300 members. Framed as one would expect in terms of love and loyalty towards Israel, it nonetheless represents a decisive break with the Board’s customary gung-ho support for the war on Gaza.
The signatories find that “what is happening is unbearable” and say:
this most extremist of Israeli governments is openly encouraging violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, strangling the Palestinian economy and building more new settlements than ever
They say they cannot avert their eyes from what is happening in Gaza and note that
the last 18 months of heartbreaking war have shown us that the most successful way of bringing the hostages home and creating a lasting peace is through diplomacy. By the end of the first phase of the second ceasefire and hostage release deal, 135 hostages had been released through negotiation, just eight by military action, with at least three tragically killed by the Israel Defense Forces.
The letter refers to Israel’s decision to
break the ceasefire and return to war in Gaza with the “Itamar offensive”… enabling the Israeli government’s budget to be passed within the tight deadline needed to avoid an election. Since then, no hostages have returned. Hundreds and hundreds more Palestinians have been killed; food, fuel and medical supplies have once again been blocked from entering Gaza; and we are back in a brutal war where the killing of 15 paramedics and their burial in a mass grave is again possible and risks being normal. Such incidents are too painful and shocking to take in, but we know in our hearts we cannot turn a blind eye or remain silent at this renewed loss of life and livelihoods, with hopes dwindling for a peaceful reconciliation and the return of the hostages.
Stressing their support for the families of the hostages, the 36 Deputies note that they are writing during the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover) which celebrates liberation from oppression and conclude:
We stand against the war. We acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life. We yearn for the “day after” this conflict when reconciliation can start. As we mark the festival of freedom with so many hostages still in captivity, it is our duty, as Jews, to speak out.”
It has taken more than a year of slaughter in Gaza for anyone within the BoD to summon up the courage to go this far – a mild expression of a preference for diplomacy over war and a modest acknowledgement that Palestinian lives matter. But we have to welcome the fact that these 36 have, at last, publicly exposed the false assumption that all Jews speak with one voice, uncritically supporting anything that Israel does. We know there are very many more still too fearful to speak out against the killing of Palestinians.
The letter writers were immediately the subject of violent abuse on social media.
One post on X demanded: Will you be exorcising the Kapos from the BoD? I’m guessing they’re largely reform Jews who don’t follow Judaism anyway.
Another declaimed: UK Jewry can ill afford self-righteous, narcissistic, woke, progressive, liberal back stabbers to be in any position of influence. What a sham.
It wasn’t long before Phil Rosenberg, the Board’s President, made his views plain in a column in Jewish News entitled “Board of Deputies stands firmly with Israel… not THAT letter”.
He claimed, bizarrely given the extreme hostility the BoD has shown to anti- or non-Zionist Jews, that they “ordinarily” celebrate diversity of opinion. However, “This case is different” and represents “a deeply regrettable loss of perspective.”
Rosenberg was at pains to emphasise that the views expressed are those of an insignificant minority who “are now experiencing what I and other senior Board representatives know all too well; that it is remarkably easy to get the media to listen to you in this country if you highlight your Jewish identity while vocally criticising Israel or its government.”
“Remarkably easy”? If the situation was not so serious, such an assertion would be laughable given how little coverage there has been of, for example, the Jewish Bloc on the marches and other acts of pro-Palestinian solidarity by Jews in this country and across the world.
Now the cracks are widening, even at the centre of the Jewish Establishment. Rosenberg’s column suggests a desperate need to hold onto the myth of Jewish pro-Israel unanimity, insisting that “as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, I speak for the organisation as a whole” and “for the majority of Jews in Britain.” He even tells the Financial Times that it “needs to learn to count: 90% of Deputies is a bigger number than the 10% who signed this letter.” One could point out that it may be Phil Rosenberg who needs to learn to count. 36 out of 300 is more than 10 percent.
His column also drew criticism from a group of Israelis in the UK (We Democracy) who welcomed the dissenting deputies’ letter saying it reflected polls that “repeatedly show that around 70% of Israelis support a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive hostage deal.” The group said it “finally felt that mainstream communal voices are standing in solidarity with the majority of Israelis – Israelis who do not support this far-right government, who want the war to end, and who want to see all hostages returned home.”
So the British Jewish establishment is being confronted with the fact that opposition to this “war” cannot be dismissed as being confined to JVL and a few others who are no more than a “tiny, unrepresentative fringe”. Even members of the Israeli military are signing letters calling for this to stop. (see eg here from Military.com and here from Ha’aretz).
Of course these focus on the harm the continuing war is doing to Israel, but they mark an important shift as more people are openly distancing themselves from the decisions of the Israeli government. In the UK we are seeing an increasing willingness to depart from the Board’s slavish support for Israel, as had already occurred in August 2024 when a group of British rabbis published a critical letter in the Sunday Times.
It must be terrifying for the Board president to see the number of Jewish people who cannot support Israel’s actions growing. It is no longer sustainable to ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people and put all the blame on Hamas, as Rosenberg does in his Jewish News column. He does not even mention Palestinians and only refers to Gaza in order to tell us about protests there against Hamas.
Ostrich-like he concludes: “For our part, the Board of Deputies, will continue to be unstinting in our advocacy for the majority of our community and our shared values”.
As we have said all along, the BoD is not there to represent British Jews but only those Jews who agree with them.
The shift in views of at least 10% BoD’s membership is very welcome – though horribly late and inevitably limited at this stage of their “heresy”.
Humans are social beings and it’s extremely hard to disagree profoundly with the assumptions seemingly held by most of your community. The group signing this letter (36 people) are a large enough number to provide each other with some mutual support. Which will be much needed. It may be insufficient.
New “dissenters” hurting at the pain of their dissent will mostly not want to join any new “tribe” immediately. Are there any sensitive, supportive individuals not themselves active on matters to do with Israel-Palestine and different Jewish organisations who might be willing to offer simple friendship (whenever and however wanted) to these signatories? Perhaps people who already have some slight personal acquaintance with those who’ve now signed the open letter?
Those offering friendship will need shared, neutral interests in common with the relevant signatory and their family (eg a liking for country walks or concert-going). They’d probably be friends of friends rather than JVL members themselves.
I remember with grateful thanks those Canadian friends of our distant family whose friendship made all the difference when we moved from the UK to Quebec.
What is BoD’s level of legitimacy? When will there be a comprehensive poll of British Jews and their respective affiliations – what would be the ideal question(s) to ascertain their affinity towards their Jewish identity and how far that means support for Israel.
I posted this yesterday where I persistently challenge ‘Zionism’ in the TOI (Times of Israel)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/state-department-spokesperson-dodges-question-on-whether-israel-should-resume-allowing-gaza-aid/
“… in the UK, the is a story today in the Jewish News
36 Board of Deputies members express open opposition to Israel’s continued war in Gaza
Signatories state ‘our Jewish values compel us to stand up and speak out’ as BoD leadership distances itself from letter
Responding to the letter, an official Board statement said: ”The Board of Deputies represents the diverse constituencies of the UK Jewish community.
“We understand that around 10% of our Deputies signed this letter and that potentially others would associate themselves with it.
“Others would no doubt put more emphasis on the fundamental responsibility of Hamas for this ghastly situation…”
no. this ‘ghastly situation’ is a self-inflicted wound. from the very earliest origins of modern-day Zionism – Pinsker, Herzl – the aim was to remove the Arabs from Palestine. First the Balfour Declaration then the British Mandate… Weizmann tirelessly lobbied for the Zionist cause… but the Arabs were effectively excluded from these negotiations. Weizmann and his team were in London where it mattered. Where were the Palestinian Arabs? In Palestine. Voiceless. And fearful that the Jews would drive them out – despite repeated reassurances from Weizmann that the Zionists entertained no such plan.
Is it any wonder that they resist?
I feel sad and ashamed that my UK liberal Jewish academic contemporaries have remained silent.
In reply to Maxwill Smart: the IJPR does an annual survey of Jewish opinion in Britain. The link to a summary of their political views is below. The full survey is long and covers views on religious observance, synagogue membership and so on. One finding is that 65% identify as Zionist, although tis does not mean the other 35% are anti-zionist. I think the views of critics of Israel are likely to be under-represented, as they contact people through synagogues, word if mouth and looking for likely surnames and those contacted can choose whether to participate, which will encourage those with stronger views. The selection method obviously misses non-religious Jews and those whose mothers married outside the community. I think the proportion of non-zionists in these groups is likely to be higher.
https://www.jpr.org.uk/reports/year-after-october-7-british-jewish-views-israel-antisemitism-and-jewish-life
It is devastating that it has taken them this long to speak out. How much destruction, starvation and death did they need to see before noticing its wrong? Why have the Jews who’ve been saying it for years never been heard?
In the circumstances, 36 deputies putting their names to a public letter deploring the iniquities of the extremist Israeli government is substantial.
There will be many with misgivings about the cruelty and low Jewish values of the Israeli government who do not openly speak out. The article explains the retaliations of slagging-off and threats against those who do.
I observed that the BBC gave more prominence to Zionist establishment posturing than it did to the Jewish letter of concern about mistreatment of the indigenous people by the truly terroris State of Israel. The BBC again shows itself to be a part of the self-imposed establishment of our country.
Netanyahu will not take any notice of this dissenting BOD letter in a UK newspaper.
It is a shame that the letter is not addressed to our prime minister and foreign secretary, insisting that the UK stop sending arms to Israel.