The minister for the Middle East joined a security shift with the Community Security Trust (CST) after the stabbing of two Jews in Golders Green.
Hamish Falconer volunteered to stand outside a London synagogue in the aftermath of the attack last month, saying the security measures now surrounding British Jewish life were a “damning indictment on our society”.
“I felt such deep sadness standing there in my stab-proof vest watching defiant families heading into shul,” the Labour MP for Lincoln said, adding that antisemitism was a “crisis for all of us”.
The minister was speaking in central London at the annual fundraiser for the pro-peace organisation Yachad.
He said: “I hate to see synagogues with tall fences, Jewish schools with multiple layers of security, community events where the location isn't revealed until the last minute.”
He praised Yachad’s role in Parliament, saying: “I understand the diversity of opinion across the Jewish community and am incredibly grateful for Yachad and the work that you do.”
Turning to the Middle East, he reaffirmed the government’s “absolute” support for Israel’s security and “right to exist”, while insisting that “the only viable outcome towards lasting peace remains two states”.
“That is why this government recognised the state of Palestine,” he said.
“That was not to punish Israel or Israelis, but to protect the viability of two states, to assert that Palestinian self-determination is a matter of right. If we are serious about that, we must be honest about what is making it harder.”
He said conditions in Gaza were “appalling”, with aid levels “grossly insufficient”, and repeated calls for Hamas to disarm, something he said has been “frustratingly slow”.
“We continue to press for Hamas to give up all of its weapons and engage seriously with negotiations. We are pressing relentlessly for full humanitarian access into Gaza.”
Falconer sharply criticised settlement expansion and violence in the West Bank, warning that the “direction of travel is perilous”.
“Settlement expansion continues, including plans for the E1 settlements. Settler violence is at record levels. This is causing real, huge damage,” he said.
“It destabilises the West Bank, and it makes a negotiated outcome so much harder to achieve.
“I believe the actions of the settlers and of these ministers is doing real harm, both to the interests and image of the state of Israel."
He defended recent UK sanctions linked to settler violence and far-right Israeli ministers, arguing that actions in the West Bank were harming Israel’s international standing and undermining the prospects for peace.
Falconer drew a clear distinction between criticism of the Israeli government and hostility towards British Jews.
“Of course you can criticise the Israeli government without being antisemitic. Of course you can do it without chanting vile or hateful slogans. Of course you can do it without blaming British Jews for anything that the Israeli government does.
“We all know the difference. It is dangerous racism and morally bankrupt to suggest otherwise.”
He said he had been “energetically attacked” for sanctioning Hamas and “luridly criticised” by the Israeli government when he demanded accountability after British aid workers were killed in Israeli strikes.
But attacks from both sides of the debate had not altered his position.
“None of this alters one iota of my conviction. We must remain committed to the fundamental rights of Israelis to live free from terror, secure in a Jewish homeland. It won't weaken my commitment to the rights of Palestinians and to achieving the reality of Palestinian statehood.”
Falconer said the Abraham Accords showed the region could move beyond “decades of paralysis”, but warned that progress would remain impossible “while settlements expand and even the idea of Palestinian statehood is opposed by this Israeli government.
“There can be no settlement imposed from outside Israel,” he went on, and praised the work of Yachad and other advocacy organisations.
Later in the evening, journalist Alona Ferber chaired a discussion with the Israeli activist Avner Gvaryahu and the Palestinian artist and activist Eid Hathaleen, who joined remotely after being denied a British visa due to administrative issues.
Hathaleen described conditions in his village of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills, where he said there was “no accountability” for police and military violence, widespread home demolitions and land confiscations.
“As a Palestinian, you find yourself helpless in the situation and undefendable,” he said, claiming rapid-response army units had taken control of large areas.
Alona Ferber (right) chaired a discussion with Avner Gvaryahu (left) and Eid Hathaleen (Photo: Yachad)[Missing Credit]
Gvaryahu, a former executive director of Breaking the Silence, a Israeli NGO which documents the experiences of former IDF soldiers, described the units as “settler men units” and accused the Israeli state of being shaped by a “Kahanist mentality”.
He cited National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir inviting senior police officials to his 50th birthday celebration as evidence of the growing overlap between the state and the settler movement.
“So you have a situation where the settler violence... is state sanctioned.
“For some of you, this makes me feel uncomfortable, it is ethnic cleansing,” he went on.
“The reality on the ground is you have 14, 15, 16-year-olds who will go and harass with guns that will shoot and kill and the army itself will go and accompany them.”
“Soldiers are totally involved with this,” he said.
Gvaryahu, who recently moved to Britain to study at Oxford University, said he had been struck by the security around the synagogue attended by his children and said rising antisemitism in Britain had reminded him “why we are fighting”.
“We're fighting for human dignity, human safety, for people in Oxford, London, or Birmingham, to be able to walk to their school without [being] harassed or attacked,” he said, adding that he saw a “connection” between antisemitism in Britain and his work in the West Bank.
Hathaleen said he had a “very good relationship with Jewish society around the world” and praised young British Jews who visit his village to provide a “protective presence”.
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