Opinion
If Jewish organisations stay silent on worrying developments in Israel, they doom us to parochialism
Yachad's Amos Schonfield argues you cannot avoid politics by saying nothing
March 22, 2019 15:54
2 min read
Yachad's Amos Schonfield argues you cannot avoid politics by saying nothing
March 22, 2019 15:54Last year's ‘Enough is Enough’ protest outside Parliament and the way it was rapidly assembled were unthinkable a decade ago, as was the selfie stick and the Chief Rabbi’s Instagram account.
We are adjusting to a new normal. In these years of flux, we start to see very quickly how dated some of our thinking becomes.
Our establishment community is an inherently conservative environmen clings to many dated ideas in the hope that they still have purchase, but every day that leaders avoid adapting to the new normal, damage is being done.
Our community does not take political stances on Israel, nor do we engage in internal Israeli affairs. I heard this as a student at JFS as posters were put up praising the Merkava tank. I heard it as a Deputy at the Board of Deputies when the Board spoke up in support of the move of the US Embassy in Jerusalem and when it condemned the decision of the Israeli government not to create mixed prayer spaces at the Kotel. And I heard it most recently when the Board of Deputies refused to speak up when Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the neo-Kahanist racists from Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit).
Every one of these decisions – speaking and not speaking alike – is a political statement. All our communal institutions make political statements, it’s how they advocate for the issues we care about. This includes the Jewish Manifesto produced by the Board of Deputies, which is used at elections to lobby for our interests. It’s why the Board was also a loud voice on Brit Milah in Iceland, and why, in an era where people are expected to comment on any issue, Jewish communal organisations regularly issues press releases on goings on around the world.
We have come to expect communal institutions that speak out. But tricking ourselves into thinking that Israel advocacy or a policy of silence against Israel's far-right Jewish Power is politically neutral is unrealistic and dated thinking that dooms us to parochialism.
Remaining silent is a deeply political statement.
Designating something an ‘internal political issue’ that should pass uncommented is rather fluid. Communal institutions rightly speak out when there is a terrorist incident in the West Bank, but many become silent when international law is being flaunted by the latest settlement construction effort in the same area. The charge of interference can be applied to both advocates and critics. The term ‘political’ seems to have been lost in translation. It seems that ‘political’ has somehow become a byword for ‘doesn’t fit in my worldview’.
To ask us to remain silent is also to rob us of our prerogative as a diaspora. Diasporas are defined by three things: their dispersal, the maintaining of boundaries between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, and engaging with their homeland. Our experiences as the Jewish Diaspora in the UK didn’t end when the state of Israel was established, and we remain a vital part of the ecosystem.
Anglo-Jewry proudly donates to Israeli causes and lobbies the British government on issues it sees as important. Our distance and dedication allow us to give perspective to existential dangers facing Israel, be that the mainstreaming of fascism or the ongoing and corrosive occupation. The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs exists for just this reason, and just as peace in Northern Ireland would not have been possible without Irish diasporas, we know that we have a role to play.
It is our duty and our responsibility to advocate for an Israel that is Jewish as well as just, democratic and secure.
Today, that involves being loud and confident in our views, and not bowing to those in our community who preach racism and division. This is not an issue of old vs young, but rather one of passive vs active.
If the leading lights of the community ignore the push to action, it will alienate a generation that is not afraid to act. That’s a fight the community can’t afford to fight and is unable to win.
Amos Schonfield is Yachad’s representative at the Board of Deputies. He is the Chair of Noam Masorti Youth, where he is a former Mazkir. He is studying for an MSc in Migration Studies at University of Oxford.
