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Reading the responses from UK Jewish leaders to the government’s proposed sanctions on Israeli settlements feels like stepping into an upside-down world where logic is inverted and the arguments are dangerously detached from reality. Under new management, with Andy Burnham now installed as prime minister and Ed Miliband as foreign secretary, the Labour government has signalled its intent to ban goods from Israeli settlements – all of which are illegal under international law. In response, and precisely as one anonymous source to the Israeli Haaretz newspaper predicted last week, Britain’s establishment Jewish groups have gone “batshit crazy”.
The UK’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, after meeting with the foreign secretary days ago, said it would be met with “deep dismay” by Britain’s Jews and would negatively affect both this community and peace prospects in the Middle East. The Board of Deputies of British Jews – the UK’s largest and oldest Jewish representative group – warned the government’s proposals could “have a harmful impact on the UK Jewish community” and the Jewish Leadership Council warned of the same thing in the same words.
It’s worth noting that the chief rabbi has a history of dangerously blurring the lines between the interests of the Israeli state and those of the Jewish community.