Rabbi Lord Sacks: please think again


May 21, 2017
vivjackson
ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-JERUSALEM-DAY

Religious Israeli nationalists enter the Old City via Damascus Gate in Palestinian East Jerusalem in 2015.

Letter to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks regarding Mizrachi Olami’s Yom Yerushalayim trip

Dear Rabbi Lord Sacks,

We write to you regarding your promotion of the Mizrachi Olami ‘This Year in Jerusalem’ trip taking place this month to celebrate 50 years of a reunited Jerusalem.

As members of the Jewish community we wish to express our disappointment in your participation in and promotion of this trip, many aspects of which show support for the highly problematic status quo and continuation of the occupation.

In particular, we believe it is inappropriate for the delegation to join the March of the Flags on Yom Yerushalayim. We appreciate that you would like to celebrate this occasion, but this is not simply a peaceful or celebratory march. It provocatively passes through the Muslim quarter of the Old City and has become an opportunity for hate speech, violence towards any Palestinians seen on the streets, and vandalism of Palestinian property. On the day of the march areas of East Jerusalem are cleared of their Palestinian residents, and Palestinian businesses receive closure orders.

We are also concerned by aspects of the trip to Chevron the following day. As Jews we appreciate the holiness of the Cave of Machpelah and our historical link to it, and your wish to visit and daven there. However, the program indicates that the group will also visit other parts of Chevron, and will dance with soldiers on the streets there. The small, heavily guarded, Jewish settlement in the larger Palestinian city is controversial even within the settlement movement, and is known for being home to settlers with extremist ideologies. A delegation of diaspora Jews dancing with soldiers in the streets of the settlement (where Palestinians may not walk) is, we believe, provocative and insensitive.

Given your significant influence within British Jewry and beyond as a highly respected Rabbi and a member of the House of Lords, we are concerned by the strong message of support for the continuation of the occupation which your promotion of and participation in these events would send. Continued occupation is not our Judaism, and these activities are or not reflective of the Jewish values we have grown up with of showing respect to all, loving our neighbours and pursuing peace and justice. Your participation in and endorsement of these actions and events implies that to support Israel today is to support the continuation of the occupation. We believe this approach risks ostracizing many Jews from supporting Israel.

We therefore send this letter as a plea that you reconsider your promotion of these activities.

Save

Save

© Copyright JFJFP 2024