Rozenberg asked Hermer how he believed the decision to recognise Palestine while Hamas was still holding hostages had been received by British Jews. Hermer, who is Jewish, responded that “we are not a homogeneous community,” adding that the government had “a duty to get out there and explain why we recognised [Palestine] when we did.”
However, he declined to confirm whether he himself advised the government’s decision at the time, though he admitted having consistently advocated for the recognition of Palestinian statehood “for years”.
On the charge of whether Israel is committing genocide, Hermer said it was “not for the government to make any consideration about genocide. That’s for the court to make”.
He added it was “absolutely wrong” to suggest that the government was more concerned with winning votes from the Muslim community than the Jewish one, after Rozenberg suggested that some British Jews feel it “is not on their side.”
“What we are concerned about is ensuring a fair and tolerant society in which all groups feel safe to express their identities, their religious beliefs, not prioritising one over another,” Hermer responded.
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Lord Hermer, attorney general for England and Wales and advocate general for Northern Ireland[Missing Credit]
He also claimed that social media played a “significant” part in promoting antisemitism, and that “false information” online is “one of the major problems of our age”.
“Social media is playing a major role in dividing people in this country and across the world. It is a huge challenge for societies,” he said.
Born in 1968, Hermer was raised in a Jewish household in south Wales. He studied politics and modern history at the University of Manchester, during which time he was a senior figure in the National Union of Students and a sabbatical officer of the Union of Jewish Students.
He subsequently joined Doughty Street Chambers, where he befriended founding member Sir Keir Starmer.
He credits Starmer with “radically” overhauling the Labour Party and “rooting out the evil of antisemitism” from the party to the extent that he “expelled the previous leader [Jeremy Corbyn].”
He said the fight against antisemitism is “absolutely personal” for Starmer. “You may have seen, in his limited time off, he went to Poland to see where [his wife’s] father was born,” Hermer said of the prime minister.
Hermer also spoke about his positive relationship with Lord Wolfson, the shadow attorney general, recalling that he was among the first people he dined with in the House of Lords.
“David is a really good guy, who I personally really like,” Hermer said. “We share lots of views about the world we live in, and lots of the same values. Undoubtedly, that’s informed by our similarities, growing up as Jewish kids in provinces.”
A Jewish value Hermer returned to throughout the evening, which he felt shaped his sense of responsibility within government and the legal profession, was tikkun, “meaning to repair, to not accept the world as it is but to try and make the world better,” he said.
