Why won’t UK Jewish leaders stand up to Netanyahu?

Thousands of protesters in London’s Trafalgar Square rally in support of the release of Israeli hostages helped by Hamas in Gaza

Colin Shindler writes in Haaretz on 16 December 2024.

At the end of October, a conference was held near Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the kibbutzim which bore the bloody brunt of Hamas’ October 7 assault.  It was attended by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and another ten government ministers, to support the (re)establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. Even Yitzhak Goldknopf of the non-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism attended.

Last week, a number of U.S. Jewish organizations issued a statement condemning such moves. The mainstream Jewish Federations of North America, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League were all signatories to this statement – certainly not the usual suspects.

The ADL statement was unequivocal: “We are deeply troubled by statements from Israeli government ministers and activists advocating for the emigration or ‘population thinning’ of Palestinians in Gaza. These views reflect an inhumane approach, tarnish Israel’s reputation, and are fundamentally immoral.”

In the U.K., however, leading Jewish organizations however have continued to remain silent. For parts of the community, this is already a pattern: Centrist Orthodox groups, representing many in the British Jewish community, refused to murmur even a scintilla of dissent during Israel’s nationwide protests against the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul program last year.

Many members of the Hostages and Missing Families’ Forum have visited London and spoken to many sympathetic synagogue audiences and organizations. Hebrew University Professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of a hostage, told a London radio station:

“I think that in a perfect world, (rescuing the hostages) could happen but there is no army in the world that is capable of retrieving hostages who are being held underground in booby-trapped terror tunnels, being used as human shields by terrorists who have no regard for human life – both Jewish life and Palestinian life. There is no choice other than coming to an agreement with Satan.”

In no uncertain terms, Dekel-Chen was advocating the urgent need to close a Gaza cease-fire deal which would release the 100 hostages still held by Hamas, a position shared by the vast majority of hostage families and the Israeli public. A poll published last Friday by Channel 12 news indicated that a majority of Israelis would support ending the war in Gaza war in exchange for the release of all the hostages.

Protest calling for the immediate return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. One sign depicting a hostage says: ‘If [the Israeli government] doesn’t sign a deal, they are signing my death warrant!’Credit: Moti Milrod
But many U.K. Jewish organizations have still avoided taking a stand on issues such as Israel-Hamas negotiations and a Gaza cease-fire. And if the views of Israelis most directly affected are not enough, what about their responsibility as the elected and appointed representatives of British Jews?

According to a recent survey by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 71 percent of British Jews believe that Netanyahu has not done enough to rescue the hostages. Another recent JPR survey found that four out of every five British Jews disapprove of Netanyahu – some 65 percent ‘strongly’. A mere 12 percent have a kind word to say about the Israeli prime minister.

And this was not a survey of merely a few hundred Jews but one of almost 4,500 respondents in a relatively small community. The implication of this research is that representative bodies of the community are actually unrepresentative.

An earlier JPR survey noted that 72 percent of Jews in the UK are pessimistic about the future of democratic governance in Israel. The equivalent figure for Israeli Jews is 55 percent.

The strategy of communal representation in the U.K. has been to refer those who query their stance to those individuals and organizations who do openly take a stand. But silence sends a message too. Remaining silent meant projecting the perception that they agree with Netanyahu’s ‘total victory’ slogan which deprioritizes the rescue of the hostages.

Tel Aviv protest after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallat noted a key point of conflict was his prioritization of an urgent hostage deal, which Netanyahu opposedCredit: Tomer Appelbaum
This is in line with the traditional Diaspora approach: wait for an Israeli government figure to condemn a controversial stand before doing it themselves. In 1982, it was President Navon’s initiative in calling for an inquiry into the killings in the Sabra and Shatila camps during the first Lebanon war that allowed the Board of Deputies of British Jews to support the establishment of the Kahan Commission – much to the chagrin of Menachem Begin.

The Jewish community in the U.K. has fought against a surge of intimidation and antisemitic discrimination since October 7. But when Jewish organizations defend ‘Israel’ what does it mean? There is no separation between defending the state and defending the government. It is the refusal to clearly and officially distance themselves from figures such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich that diminish, demean and weaken the defense of the state, the Hebrew republic, in the Diaspora.

The outcome of the current approach is a polarization within the community such that the choices become either ‘fighting antisemitism’ or ‘criticizing Netanyahu’s coalition.’ Remarkably few consider doing both. The statement of the U.S. Jewish organizations indicates that there is another way.

The Jewish community in the U.K. has faced a surge of antisemitic intimidation since October 7. But when Jewish groups defend ‘Israel’ what does it mean: Defending the state and its citizens, or defending the Netanyahu government?Credit: Alberto Pezzali,AP
Netanyahu does not even seem to care too much for Diaspora communities unless it is the United States and even then he prefers the illiberalism of evangelical Christians and ultra-Orthodox Jews over the mainstream. America counts – for obvious reasons – but the rest of the Diaspora is paid lip service.

Netanyahu therefore had little compunction in allowing the BibiLeaks affair to draw in the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, which had already ceased to be a communal marketplace where all views were heard and to become, instead, part of the Netanyahu circus. (Disclosure: This was my personal reason to resign from writing for the paper, to which I had contributed for over 50 years.)

This manipulation of British Jews by Netanyahu has brought into existence a new activist group of Israelis, living in the U.K., together with homegrown British Jews.

The members of ‘We Democracy UK’ have mounted protests in Oxford and Cambridge as well outside the House of Commons in Parliament Square. The group came into existence last year to support the protest movement in Israel against the judicial ‘reforms.’ Their remit now is much wider, given the Netanyahu government’s recent escalation of draconian legislation.

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Earlier this month, over 200 Israelis, living in the UK, signed a letter to the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer. They chastised him and questioned whether he really is a ‘true friend’ of the State of Israel since he has not sanctioned Ben-Gvir and Smotrich so far, while Netanyahu’s government propagates legislation to shackle a free media in Israel and in turn seeking to dilute Western democratic norms.

Netanyahu is bolstered by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in closing the curtains on a democratic vision for Israel. In this respect, Netanyahu plays on their ignorance of the struggle for the state in the UK before 1948 by towering figures such as Weizmann and Jabotinsky. He can count on them totally to stifle any challenge from the Diaspora to his destructive policies – amidst a deafening silence from its leaders.

Colin Shindler was the first professor of Israeli Studies in the U.K. The author of 15 books, including A History of Modern Israel, he edited the Routledge Handbook on Zionism which was published in 2024

This article is reproduced in its entirety