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Board of Deputies vice-president hits out at 'leaks' over Israel survey
She said she had stopped letting observers sit in meetings of the Board's International Division 'because basically you can't trust people'
February 16, 2020 15:27
She said she had stopped letting observers sit in meetings of the Board's International Division 'because basically you can't trust people'
February 16, 2020 15:27A vice-president of the Board of Deputies has hit out at "leaks" over a proposed, controversial survey of its members on Israel.
At Sunday's plenary meeting, Sheila Gewolb told deputies she had stopped allowing observers to attend meetings of the Board's International Division "because there was a leak" of draft questions that were part of "a piece of work that was nowhere near complete".
The survey was suspended in January as Board President Marie van der Zyl warned: "Despite the good intentions of this initiative, it has become clear that the survey itself is proving as divisive as the issue itself."
Ms Gewolb has rejected Mrs van der Zyl's proposal of a meeting on Israel, chaired by former Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman, to explore deputies' views.
Speaking at Sunday's meeting while sitting next to Mrs van der Zyl, Ms Gewolb said of the leak: "That's why I refuse to have observers because basically you can't trust people.
"Every member of the division was really, unfortunately concerned at the lack of respect to me and other members by causing vocies to be silenced by leaking a piece of work that was not completed."
She was speaking after Mary Regnier-Leigh, a deputy from Western Marble Arch Synagogue, complained the International Division was "so secret and so silent".
She claimed, in order to attend as an observer, she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would have "prevented me from discussing it at all".
Her offer of attending if she undertook to not repeat anything was rejected, she said.
"I found that a bit insulting," she told deputies. "What's our job here? Is it to look ater Anglo-Jewry? Or is it to make statements about the internal affairs of Israel?
"A survey will divide us... Ifwe have a survey or indeed a meeting, I will promise you that will leak, just as it leaked that there was such a survey...
"Does anyone in this hall actually believe we are can reach a concensus?
"If we can't, and I believe we cannot, then we should not be involved in something that is going to divide the Board of Deputies irrevocably and get out to the public so they can point the finger and say 'that Jew doesn't support Israel and that Jew does' and we are going to have to defend ourselves."
Ms Gewolb replied: "The very reason why I stopped allowing observers was because there was a leak...
"I'm in my fifth year as a vice-president. I have never, ever turned away an observer before.
"But the very thing that people accuse the division of trying to promote - divisiveness within the community - was actually effected by survey questions on a work on progress that was not even near completion being leaked to the press and other deputies - to cause the very divisiveness and reputational damage that we were trying to avoid."
She added: "I'm sorry if I've used strong language. That is not me as a person. People who have worked with me know who I am and what I try to achieve.
"I am guided by what my divisional members want. It's a democratic process. It's not secret but the only reason I refuse to have observers was because somebody had leaked of details of a piece of work that was nowhere near complete.
"And had no right to cause controversy and reputational damage to the Board in so doing."
Mrs van der Zyl said the survey was causing "divisiveness before it's even set off".
She reiterated her preference for a meeting on the subject, which she said Dame Louise, a former Labour Friends of Israel president, was "ideally placed" to chair.
