UK’s chief rabbi gives his blessing to war crimes in Gaza
Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis with Prince Charles at his installation in 2013
Jonathan Cook writes in Substack on 11 January 2024:
Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, spoke at a public event at a synagogue last Sunday to extol the “outstanding” performance of the Israeli military in Gaza. He did so days before South Africa argues its case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague – starting today – that Israel is committing genocide in the enclave.
Whether Israel is eventually found to be perpetrating genocide may prove more a political decision than a legal verdict, given the pressures on the 15 judges from their respective national leaderships.
But it is indisputable that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. It is known to have killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and seriously wounded tens of thousands more. It has driven from their homes the overwhelming majority of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million – that is, Israel has ethnically cleansed them.
Israel has repeatedly bombed the “safe zones” to which it has ordered civilians to flee, as well as critical infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and bakeries. It has imposed a “complete siege” that is denying food, aid and medicine, leading to mass starvation and the spread of lethal disease.
Video footage has shown Israeli soldiers in Gaza gleefully smashing up shops; stripping Palestinian men and boys to their underwear; and shooting civilians, including women, in the street as they carrying white flags. Soldiers even executed three of Israel’s hostages trying to escape captivity and surrender with an SOS sign.
Yet Britain’s chief rabbi, the face of Judaism in the UK, has raised his voice to call all of this “the most outstanding possible thing”. He has gone further: he has described the troops committing these crimes “our heroic soldiers” and revealed that his own son, Danny, is assisting with the attack on Gaza in the Israeli military. He has said he is “immensely proud” of him.