British Jewish and Muslim bodies issue joint call for peace, wisdom, hope
The statement from the MCB and BoD follows the BBC news report. Melanie Phillips’ hostile article is 3rd. Some comments are included.
British Jews and Muslims issue joint call for peace
BBC News
August 28, 2014
In an unprecedented joint statement, the Jewish Board of Deputies and Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) condemned Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.
In it they acknowledge the “deeply-held views” about the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
But reports suggest that the bodies disagreed over one line of the statement involving civilian deaths.
The statement clearly describes the loss of civilian life as unacceptable for both religions.
Joint statement
The call for peace comes after Israel and Hamas agreed an indefinite ceasefire following 50 days of fighting which has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 mostly civilian Palestinians and 70 Israelis, 64 of whom were soldiers.
“In spite of the situation in the Middle East, we must continue to work hard for good community relations in the UK,” the statement said.
“We must not import conflict. We must export peace instead.”
Reports have suggested a rise in anti-Semitism since the conflict in Gaza began.
Calling on Jews and Muslims to “redouble efforts to work together and get to know one another”, the statement added: “We condemn any expression of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or any form of racism.”
The community leaders said there was more that united than divided followers of the two religions.
Against traditions
And while they acknowledged that “our communities may disagree about the origins, current reasons and solutions to end the conflict” in the Middle East, they pointed to areas of agreement.
“The death of every civilian is a tragedy, and every effort should be taken to minimise such losses,” the statement said.
“The targeting of civilians is completely unacceptable and against our religious traditions.
“We pray for a speedy end to the current conflict and for a lasting peace for all.”
But according to the Jewish Chronicle newspaper the two groups differed over a line in the statement which reads: “The targeting of civilians is completely unacceptable and against our religious traditions.”
The paper’s report suggests a dispute has since broken out over what is implied behind the phrase “targeting of civilians”.
A spokeswoman for the MCB reportedly told the paper: “It refers to both sides, Israel and Hamas.”
The Jewish Chronicle quoted a spokesman for the Jewish Board of Deputies who said: “We are very clear that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) does not target civilians – that’s why we felt able to sign it.”
The board describes itself as existing to “promote and defend the religious and civil liberties” of Jews in Britain.
Its Muslim counterpart the MCB is a national body of more than 500 affiliated mosques and other Muslim organisations in the UK.
British Jews and Muslims Call for Peace, Wisdom and Hope over Conflict in Israel and Palestine
Joint Statement, British Board of Deputies and Muslim Council of Britain
August 27, 2014
Amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Muslim Council of Britain are issuing the following joint statement:
There is no doubt that Muslims and Jews have deeply held views about the conflict in Israel and Palestine. We acknowledge that our communities may disagree about the origins, current reasons and solutions to end the conflict. But there are also points of agreement.
The death of every civilian is a tragedy, and every effort should be taken to minimise such losses. The targeting of civilians is completely unacceptable and against our religious traditions. We pray for a speedy end to the current conflict and for a lasting peace for all.
In spite of the situation in the Middle East, we must continue to work hard for good community relations in the UK. We must not import conflict. We must export peace instead.
Whilst everyone has the right to voice their political opinion, be that in a rally or on social media, we must be mindful of how we convey our protest. There can be no excuse for racism, violence, or other forms of intimidation, when expressing views in the media, on the streets, outside shops or online.
We condemn any expression of Antisemitism, Islamophobia or any form of racism. We call for Muslim and Jewish communities to redouble efforts to work together and get to know one another.
We need constructive dialogue to limit our disagreements and identify the widest possible range of areas for cooperation. There are more issues that unite us than divide us.
May the God of Abraham grant our World more peace, wisdom and hope.
Comments
by Joe Dexter – on 28-Aug-2014
Vivian Wineman I wish to state categorically that you do not speak for me when you pay lip service to common ground with Muslims simply to preserve community cohesion. You have no right to align yourselves on my behalf with the MCB. This wilful ignorance about the growing dangers from Islamism will not help anybody. Surely you must have woken up to the appalling criminal behaviour of some Muslims, and the dangers we face from Islamic jihadism in this country. You appear to have learned nothing from the community’s anger about your lack of action about the Muslim backlash after Operation Protective Edge. Your comment about being “mindful of how we convey our protest” says it all. It is about time your dinosaur organisation was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and British people were made aware that you do not have a mandate to speak on behalf of every single Jewish person. Open your eyes before it is too late, and give the Jewish community the respect of shaping up or shipping out, to make way for an organisation which will act on behalf of ALL Jews .
by Allan Hayes – on 29-Aug-2014
Would it not help if we educated our children together so that they knew and valued their shared humanity and their different cultures from experience? I recommend two of Amartya Sen’s publications: http://bit.ly/12zN2gq and http://amzn.to/1fQsmGG ?
by Edgar Davidson – on 29-Aug-2014
The reasons why I believe Vivien Wineman must resign over this farcical statement are explained in the blog report here: http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/wineman-must-resign-as-chair-of-board.html
by Sam Rothwell – on 28-Aug-2014
How dare you patronise me, James Goldman? This “sensible” statement is a puff piece, empty words and I class it with the Muslim statement condemning ISIS (although it is not as blatantly trying to defend Islam from the results of its bloodletting and other antisocial behaviour over here. If the BoD educated itself more about how Islam perceives Jews and pontificated less about appeasing them, then it would be more worthy to represent all of us. I say again that the BoD does not speak on my behalf and by posting here I am publicly dissociating myself from this ridiculous self-aggrandising letter. I hope that the many other who are similarly dissatisfied with the BoD, and particularly its choice of partners (Oxfam being one) will do likewise.
by alain Cohen – on 28-Aug-2014
Both sides are not equal in this conflict, the second paragraph should read. “The death of every PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI civilian is a tragedy, and every effort should be taken to minimise such losses. The targeting of ISRAELI civilians is completely unacceptable and against our religious traditions. We pray for a speedy end to the current conflict and for a lasting peace for all” The BOD are short sighted and should spend time building relationships with Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities. Our community need stronger leadership. Period.
by Martin Cornberg – on 28-Aug-2014
Whilst I am sure this joint statement is well meant, Sky News this morning reported the joint statement as condemning the violence in Gaza. This prompted me to read the statement and I can see the scope for misinterpretation. Whilst I assume the expression ‘targeting of civilians’ includes the firing of 4,000 rockets at Israeli civilian communities, I can well see some may choose to interpret it purely as a criticism of the IDF and the allegations against them (which I do not accept for one moment). This ought to be clarified.
by Lesley Newson – on 28-Aug-2014
It first to comments make me sad. It is so sad that so many people see making comments on the internet as an opportunity to express their hatred and selfishness. It’s great that it’s possible for organizations to exist that want to show that there is no inherent reason why members of two ancient religions need to fight. Dispute may exist at the moment but expressing hatred and killing innocent children is standing in the way of finding solutions to these disputes. Do we want solutions or do we find expressing anger so much fun that we don’t want to give it up?
by James Goldman – on 28-Aug-2014
Oh dear. Looking at the first two comments, it seems that there are a lot of opportunities for people to listen better. Perhaps those who made these comments could read this sensible joint statement again.
by Sam Rothwell – on 28-Aug-2014
I agree with Joe Dexter. You do not speak for me or for the many Jews I know. Your joint statement was a farce, but even more farcical was the joint interview on Radio 4’s Today programme between Vivian Wineman and the Chair of the MCB, in which, when the latter was asked whether the joint statement would mean that “free Gaza” would no longer be sprayed on synagogues, almost gagged and then changed the subject. That attack on a place of worship by Muslims should have been addressed by Mr Wineman but of course it wasn’t. Whatever overweening vainglory makes Vivian Wineman believe that this letter will make any difference at all to Muslim/Jewish relations? I can only repeat Oliver Cromwell’s saying (and he was instrumental in the readmission of Jews to England) and apply it to Vivian Wineman and the BoD: “In the name of G-d, GO!!”
by Muhammad Al-Hussaini – on 30-Aug-2014
As a Muslim academic who has been a longstanding friend of the Jewish community in our shared struggle against Islamist extremism and antisemitism, and a clear supporter of a sovereign Jewish homeland within safe and secure borders, I wish to express my on dismay and the sense of betrayal my Muslim and Jewish friends feel by Vivian Wiseman’s collaboration with the Muslim Council of Britain. On 10 May 2013, a multifaith “Open Letter to the Jewish Community Leadership” was published by Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists together on the website of “Harry’s Place” in which people of diverse faiths pleaded with Wineman, the Board of Deputies and the JLC NOT to betray the victims of Islamist organisations like the MCB, the Islamic Foundation and East London Mosque, with their track record as front bodies for the extremist Islamist political movement Jamaat-e-Islami. Mr Wineman’s response to this plea by Muslims, Jews and others was deafening silence. Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist movement implicated in genocide and rape of non-Islamist Muslims, Hindus and Christians during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. In 2009, the UK government severed links with the MCB due to its senior official signing the virulently antisemitic pro-Hamas Istanbul Declaration (as well as a representative of the East London Mosque). My colleague Sam Westrop of the Gatestone Institute has published the detailed document titled “The Interfaith Industry” available online, which exposes the collusion of certain big machers in both monied and powerful Christian and Jewish interfaith organisations with extremist Islamist groups which latter have brutally silenced liberal and dissenting Muslim voices, as well as fostered antisemitism, homophobia and prejudice against other groups. Two surveys in 2006/2007 found that at most 6% of UK Muslims felt the MCB spoke for them. My Jewish colleagues who have dared to criticise the big machers in the Jewish leadership seem to face pressure and intimidation not do very different from what I myself am used to from Muslim leaders. Vivian Wineman has behaved like a typical MCB Muslim leader. Vivian Wineman has betrayed those Muslim voices which challenge Islamist bodies like the MCB. Vivian Wineman has acted like a typical Muslim leader, so maybe you do have more in common than you realise.
Stupidity of Board of Deputies
Melanie Phillips, Facebook
August 28, 2014
It is hard to exaggerate the stupidity of the UK Jewish Board of Deputies in what it has just done. It has signed a joint statement with the Muslim Council of Britain condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia and urging that the Middle East conflict should not prevent good community relations in Britain. Apart from the false equivalence between antisemitism and Islamophobia, which equates a metaphysical global derangement – the cause of centuries of pogroms and genocide against the Jews – with a spurious thought-crime invented to silence legitimate criticism of Islam, these were unexceptionable pieties.
However, the statement also contains this passage:
“The death of every civilian is a tragedy, and every effort should be taken to minimise such losses.
The targeting of civilians is completely unacceptable and against our religious traditions.”
The MCB is an umbrella organisation, a number of whose member groups are aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and support Hamas. The Board of Deputies may have assumed the second sentence above could only refer to Hamas, since the IDF does not target civilians and goes to great lengths to avoid hurting them wherever possible. But there is no way the MCB would ever suggest that Israel behaves honourably while Hamas does not. It should therefore have been blindingly obvious that the MCB would do what it has immediately done – claim that the Board had agreed with it that both Israel and Hamas had targeted civilians. The Board has thus now enabled the MCB to claim that the UK’s Jewish community leadership has condemned Israel for targeting civilians.
Unbelievable. But that’s not the full extent of it. The Board seems to be proud that this joint statement is an “unprecedented” achievement. But just look at its new friend.
MCB leaders have in the past strongly supported Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of Hamas who supports suicide bombings against Israelis (and previously, British forces in Iraq) and who has also asserted that the Torah permits Jews to spill the blood of others and seize their money and land.
The MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, for which it was shunned by the British government until it ended its boycott. In 2009, its then deputy secretary general, Daud Abdullah, signed the Istanbul Declaration which threatened violence against Israel supporters and British troops.
In 2005, it offered its condolences to the family of the leading Hamas terrorist Abdul Aziz al Rantissi after he was killed by the Israelis. Its former Secretary -General, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, branded Israel a “Nazi” state, accused it of “murderous leadership”, “Zionist brutality” and “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine”, and compared Hamas suicide bombers to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Also that year, the BBC TV Panorama programme exposed the influence on the MCB of the Islamist thinker Sayed Maududi, who preached the need for jihad to bring abut the “universal revolution” of Islamic state rule.
In short, it is beyond astounding that the Board of Deputies should have had anything to do with the MCB at all. Its action has also dealt a blow to all who are struggling to deal with Islamic extremism in the UK. For at a stroke the MCB, which in any sane universe should be shunned as a threat not just to Jews but to Britain, has been awarded a kite-mark of respectability and decency by – of all people – the Jews.
The Board of Deputies is not fit for purpose. It has shown that it does not have a clue about the true nature of the threat posed to Jews and to Britain by Islamic extremism. Britain’s Jewish community is leaderless at a time when strong, brave and wise leadership has never been more urgently and desperately needed. Tragic.
Comments
Paul Singer I just hope all the spineless ,liberal ,leftists ,European Jews leave that dumbshit : “love of Islam and socialism ” in the eu when they run for their lives to Israel or the United States ,, we do not need any more sellout liberal Jews ,, additionally please encourage all you conservatives Jews to come immediately and join the good fight
28 August at 15:35 · Edited
Marcelle Kuhillow The BOD should have stayed silent as they did during Protective Edge. The Jewish community in the UK does not have any credible leadership. A disgrace.
28 August at 15:51
Michael Cohen I just listened to the Radio 4 today interview and heard how reluctant the MCB Rep was to condemn the defacing of a synagogue
28 August at 16:09
Beth Litow Fenton Crazy world. These Jews unfortunately just don’t get it. So many don’t. Unbelievably frustrating.
28 August at 16:40
Joel Nathan Melanie
Sitting here in Melbourne I was unaware of the events if which you speak. I, too, am shocked.
May I please forward your post to my friends?
28 August at 16:43
Kurt Von Arnold We face a similar dynamic here in Australia.
One of the first initiatives by the newly elected Abbot government was an attempt to repeal section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act….See More
28 August at 16:50
Jude Davies It seems that there is a consensus of opinion that it’s time to chose a new board, a vote of no confidence.. a new board ?
28 August at 17:23
Michael Cohen Yes absolutely . However I wonder how many UK Jews really care, how many are that switched on to the growing danger of anti semitism ?
28 August at 17:26
Sylvia Cobersy Melanie, I have always said that the worst kind of antisemitism a Jew! In England there are Jews who hate Israel, who don’t feel anything for our Jewish country. These are the worst kind, head in the sand. I have always said antisemitism and antimzionism is one and the same, some people have their heads in the sand, like in 1938!
28 August at 19:08
Sylvia Cobersy Beth, like 1938! Nothing will happen to us, just like 1938! For me I have been here 11 years, and when I see what is going on in UK I am happy. My life here is so much better than in London as it is!
28 August at 19:10
Peter Lurie What a bunch of muppets!
28 August at 20:02
Andrew Saks-McLeod Typical of cowardly UK middle classes who are capitulating to the muslims who are knocking on their door with an iron rod. Shame on them and actually it will come to an end for them very soon. The Board of Deputies should be done away with and a Zionist organization should replace it – there is no future for Jewry in Britain and the ones who live there with their straw-man organizations and “good shabbas” greetings are simply kidding themselves. Sell your house while you can still get more than a dime for it and make Aliyah.
28 August at 20:09
Richard Knelsen Tragic! Blind! Incomprehensible! “Awake, Awake!” Read Isaiah 51 & 52.
28 August at 20:18
Wilf Mandel A similar thing happened when Judea Pearl came here. People thought the Israeli consul went too far when he noted that The Protocols & Mein Kampff are the most popular books in the Arab Mid East, the asked the Pakistan consul to meet and have coffee together. Pearl’s Muslim colocutor objected to lack of respect for Islam. Pearl rejoins with a what about disrespect for Judaism?
28 August at 20:46 · Edited
Judith Bergman Michael Cohen surely UK Jews care about the antisemitism that is occurring around them, no? I live in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the only Jewish school and kindergarden were just attacked with broken windows and antisemitic and threatening grafitti an…See More
28 August at 22:04
Avril Dawn Shaw defies belief that the UK J. B.O.D. who might be one of the first to say “never again” is playing second fiddle to the MCB conductor. How could they be so foolish?
28 August at 22:20
Graham W. Swift MCB is a terrorist organisation and its members should be arrested and deported. Cameron,Clegg & Milicretin are deluded idiots if they won’t recognise that the Islamisation of the UK is taking place right before their eyes.
28 August at 22:49
Ambrosine Yolanda Shitrit Henry gee I agree jaw jaw better than war war…. Sometimes
28 August at 23:01
David Rose Melanie Phillips spot on
28 August at 23:15
Sally Maxine Isaac I agree with you Melanie totaly,the Board of Deputies are totally out of date and ignorant of the true state of the current dangerous world situation……as indeed are most of the Western world governments.i fear we are on the brink of a terrible catastrophy
28 August at 23:16
David Rose Now the BOD have granted the MCB equality wit them. The MCB, based on their letter in The Times on Thursday 28 Auugust, will seemingly allow all Islamic organisations into membership and will never excplicvtly condemn any terror atrocity committed in the name of Islam.
28 August at 23:17
David Rose If the BoD leadership cannot understand the difference between the causes and practice of anti semitism and Islamaphobia, they clearly need to travel beyond their comfortable homes in Hampstead Garden Suburb and visit some deprived parts of the UK. let alone show their faces in standing up for Israel.
28 August at 23:21
Debbie Inbar Sorry but I think European Jews are scared sh…tless….. At least French Jews are beginning to wake up and making aliya.
28 August at 23:45
Michael Nussbaum Unfortunately, it seems reminiscent of the behavior of American Jewish groups during WWII.
28 August at 23:56
Carmel R. Miller Melanie – you should be “advisor” to Board of Deputies: I could not believe what they have done!
29 August at 00:44
Jo-Ann Zimmerman Myers It beggars belief the absolute stupidity and utter naivete.
29 August at 00:54
Michael Cohen Judith I am sure most do care. However there are people in any walk of life that unless directly affected do not care while others just don’t perceive or acknowledge the growing danger.
29 August at 01:54
Gloria Nan-Dubz McEvoy Babot Please believe that many British Jews ARE angry at what is happening here and in the rest of the world. I do not want to make Aliyah, this is my country, with all its faults, I am not going to flee from it. But I will be demonstrating on Sunday against the rise of anti-Semitism in this country and the way in which no laws are being enforced against it. I am a 70-year-old disabled grandmother and although I demonstrated a bit when I was younger, this will be my first for several years. And I bet the Board of Deputies will be there demonstrating right alongside of me!
29 August at 02:15
Brian John Thomas It gets worse. What was the MCB’s definition of “civilian”? Does it include colonial Israeli settlers like me, living in Tel Aviv?
http://www.israellycool.com/…/board-of-dhimmis-of…/
29 August at 02:18 ·
Susan Fransman Gloria, if the MBC really mean what they say then one can presume that they too will be at the demo
29 August at 03:52
RB Inman totally agree Melanie Phillips the disgusting interview on radio 4 yesterday when one of the Muslim signatories to the document refused to condemn the hypothetical desecration of a Synagogue, I spoke to an Iranian convert to Christianity yesterday he was totally dismissive of our governments policy not just on so called radical Islam but towards the entire faith, he knew first hand all about the price of leaving Islam…..
29 August at 04:18 · Edited
Ora Cummings Here we go again, self-hating Jews in a modern-day Judenrat; so far up the Moslems’ arses you can barely see their feet. I’m going to the UK next week. Should I bother?
29 August at 05:53
Tony Jacobs I agree with your sentiments Melanie Phillips, but we need to be careful here. The Board may not be fit for purpose, but we have a chance to fundamentally change it. Early next year there’s an election. The Jewish community needs to seize the opportuni…See More
29 August at 06:31 · 1
Andrew Ramen Melanie, try telling Tom Hurndall’s mother that the IDF does not target civilians or Rachel Corrie’s family. A young British man and a young American woman both deliberately murdered by the Israeli army.
29 August at 07:05 ·
Brian John Thomas Andrew Ramen: didn’t pretty extensive court cases find NO deliberate targeting?
29 August at 07:06 · Edited
Andrew Ramen Brian John Thomas. Do you think that the photographs of Rachel Corrie being run over by a bulldozer aren’t sufficiently convincing?
29 August at 07:12
Brian John Thomas Andrew: “TARGETED”. Nobody at the IDF got up that morning and said, hey, lets go out and kill some protestors. That she died is pretty clear. That she was deliberately targeted is clearly nonsense.
29 August at 07:14
Andrew Ramen That’s right. These were the findings of an Israeli court. What would you expect an Israeli court to say? I’m sorry, Brian, you haven’t even got halfway to convincing me. We can haggle over words like ‘targeted’, but do we say that the people who happened to be in the King David Hotel when it was blown up by Zionist terrorists weren’t being ‘targeted’?
29 August at 07:28
Tony Mark https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202788995458481
Now heres one very Pissed of Lady,, Maybe if people started wondering who their Real Neighbors are,, These Jihadis wont be allowed to open Camps like they do.
29 August at 07:38 · Edited
Yisrael Medad isn’t the BOD headed by the former head of Peace Now UK?* Could that be a factor? That idiocy flows between social organizations?
29 August at 07:42
* Vivian Wineman has been a Vice Chair of the Inter Faith Network for the UK since 2007. Previously he was joint chair of Peace Now and chair of the New Israel Fund of Great Britain. Wikipedia.