Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has condemned the UK’s introduction of sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, calling it a “dark day for British Jews”.
In a statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed the introduction of a trade ban on goods from settlements.
He also stated that the government now recognises the “occupation” of the Palestinian Territories as “unlawful,” claimed war crimes “appear to have been committed” in Gaza and accused the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.
Miliband said that the legislation he announced would take effect within six to nine months but added that more sanctions would be imposed against what he described as “extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence against Palestinian communities”.
Responding to the statement, Rabbi Mirvis said: “This is truly a dark day for British Jews.
“Today our government has chosen to ignore the deep concerns expressed by so many of us.
“The measures announced amount to little more than political flag-bearing for mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric and those who harbour a dangerous obsession with the Jewish State. These measures will succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target.
“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah and at a time when our community is more vulnerable than ever to the wave of extremism that has been building over recent years, these sanctions do nothing to advance the cause of peace. Nor do they make anyone safer – quite the contrary.
“Gesture politics of this kind feeds into an increasingly hostile discourse about Israel, and the cumulative effect of such punitive policies is to further embolden those, at home and abroad, who use hatred as a weapon against Jews.”
His concerns were echoed by other Jewish communal groups, with the Board of Deputies saying: “As proud Brits who love our country, and who also have deep religious, cultural and family ties to Israel, we feel a deep sense of anguish about this breakdown in relations.
“We are also impacted directly by heightened rhetoric about the conflict, including policies that focus on the actions of the Israeli government, and do not sufficiently address the responsibilities of Palestinian leaders and malign actors in the region.
“We have warned the UK Government that it should know that protesters who cry "From the River to the Sea" will not be placated by any measures short of the destruction of the world's only Jewish state.
“At the same time, we have warned the Israeli Government to recognise that intolerable settler violence in the West Bank and provocative measures not only harm Israel's international reputation but stand in the way of the peace and security that we all so desperately want.
“While we fully expect the coming days and weeks to be fractious and difficult, we will continue to call on both governments to show wisdom and restraint, to safeguard religious freedoms, to find a path to de-escalation, and ultimately to realise the hope for lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
And the Jewish Leadership Council condemned what it called the government’s “increasingly punitive and unbalanced approach towards Israel,” which it said “does nothing to advance peace, risks harming Jewish life in Britain, and damages the UK's relationship with a vital ally”.
“The government is simply yielding to pressure from the most extreme elements of British society,” it added.
“They will continue to push the government to take increasingly radical action against Israel, to the detriment of peace in the Middle East and community relations in the UK.
“The left-wing and Islamist extremists the government is trying to appease will never be satisfied, and no responsible government should bend to their demands.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, meanwhile, has already confirmed retaliatory measures, including the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem (though not the embassy in Tel Aviv) and barring 12 British individuals – including all current Green Party MPs, as well as Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana – from entering Israel.
“The accusations made today by the Foreign Secretary of the Labour Government in the British Parliament were outrageous lies,” said Sa’ar.
“The British move is morally distorted and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and in its electoral process.
“The Jewish people have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel. The connection and right of the Jewish people to this land are documented more extensively than those of any other people in human history.
“The Israeli public overwhelmingly supports the communities in Judea and Samaria, and overwhelmingly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian terror state in the heart of our land. This is something that the Labour Government is attempting, through measures that are doomed to fail, to force upon Israel. It will not work.”
To get more Politics news, click here to sign up for our free politics newsletter.