Board of Deputies of British Jews suspends vice-chair for Gaza protest letter
Destruction caused by Israel in its war on Gaza in 2025
Middle East Eye reports on 23 April 2025:
The UK’s Board of Deputies (BoD) has suspended a senior member after she co-signed a letter criticising Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war on Gaza.
Harriett Goldenberg was one of 36 members of the UK’s leading Jewish organisation who broke ranks to condemn Israel’s actions over the past year and a half.
Published in the Financial Times last week, the letter was the first public show of opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza from within the BoD.
Signatories urged the board, which has more than 300 elected deputies, to release a statement criticising the renewed offensive in Gaza last month but the organisation has not done so.
Instead, Goldenberg and other signatories are “subject to a complaints procedure” within the organisation following objections by officials within the BoD and members of the public, the body said on Tuesday.
Shortly after the letter was published, BoD President Phil Rosenberg said that the contents of the letter did not represent the organisation as a whole. The group also said that the decision to suspend Goldenberg had been taken unanimously by its executive members.
In the letter, dissenting members had written: “The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out.”
“Israel’s soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to,” it added. “Silence is seen as support for policies and actions that run contrary to our Jewish values.”
Goldenberg, vice-chair of the BoD’s international division, told the FT that while “some fear the appearance of disloyalty, we feel it is essential as British Jews to speak up”.
Despite widespread accusations that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, the BoD has been supportive of Israel’s war and has opposed even mild attempts by British government officials to restrain the military campaign.
In September, the BoD slammed the Labour government for imposing a partial arms embargo on Israel and has consistently voiced support for Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip, where more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
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