Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said that Israel is “the land that God promised, and we must hold on to that”.
Speaking to a mostly Jewish audience at an event in Westminster, he said: “I think that the pattern of the history of God's people is that the nature of the land [of Israel] is embedded in who they are, and if we lose sight of that truth, we lose sight of why the situation there now is so difficult.”
The speech was for an event organised by Repairing the Breach, a group which works to “build healing relationships” between the UK and Jewish people who suffered under the British Mandate, especially in the post-Holocaust.
Addressing the current situation in the region, he said: “I'm not commenting on what's going on at the moment.
“It doesn't mean everything else is fine, you can do anything – but it does mean that place and promise, journey and return, are utterly and deeply embedded in the story of Israel, and we have to listen to that truth, and recognise that we must live in that truth.”
Guests heard from speakers who as small children had boarded the Exodus, a ship which carried more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors towards then-Mandate Palestine in 1947, and which was attacked and seized by the British Royal Navy, with passengers forcibly removed and sent back to Europe.
Others spoke about their relatives’ role in the Bricha movement, the underground network that helped Jewish refugees escape post-war Europe and make their way towards the land which would soon become the state of Israel.
“There are no reflections that are adequate in the face of those stories,” Welby said.
“Listen to the truth as to what the British did. Listen to how we kept people from going to the land which they were intending to make sure was the one place of safety in the world, and how we stopped that.
“It’s very easy for institutions to do the wrong thing because the rules say X or Y, or because we've been given orders to do it.
"But the lesson for me and the reflection I hear is that we must act according to what is right, to love justice and do mercy and walk humbly with our God.
“Where we have gone wrong, as the British nation, in our recent history and in our further history, it is a cause for repentance and sorrow and acknowledgement.”
Welby, who served as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury between 2013 and 2025, also spoke positively about the “people of Israel”, and of his reaction on encountering the opposite sentiment.
“One cannot look at the history of the people of Israel in any place without realising that wherever they are, they bring blessing,” he said.
“Therefore, when we hear unspeakable horrors of people talking about one nation – one place in a recent political party statement, when we hear students in Cambridge on October 15th [2023], eight days after the massacre, chanting: ‘There is only one solution’… I would say that there is only one solution, and that is hospitality, reception, and gratitude for all that we have received.
“Do not let bits of the truth dominate other ideas or be dominated by other ideas,” he added.
Welby concluded yesterday’s address in Westminster with a hopeful message to the future: “Let us hold to place and promise, and to blessing and hospitality, and to justice in how we live today with the people of Israel.”
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.