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Prominent rabbis in the UK have come out in support of British sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements after the country’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said the move represented a “dark day for British Jews,” The Guardian reported.
Jonathan Wittenberg of Masorti Judaism said he was present in the Palestinian village of Umm Al-Khair in Hebron as Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who is Jewish, delivered his speech announcing the sanctions.
“What is taking place today in the West Bank is a Chillul HaShem, a violation of God’s name of the worst order. We cannot stay silent,” Wittenberg said.
“This is terrible for Palestinian people who want to get on with their lives in peace. It is terrible for Israel.
“We must speak out. We must do so out of deep concern for what is human and just, and for the sake of Israel and Judaism. We cannot turn away.”
Alexandra Wright, a rabbi from the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London and vice chair of the British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights, said action is necessary as “the occupation and escalating violence are harming Palestinians and Israelis.” She added: “The sanctions are the UK’s commitment to a two-state solution.”
Rabbi Jeremy Gordon of the New London Synagogue said: “It is wrong to argue for silence, inaction or ‘the use of carrots’ — appeasement — before the settler movement and those who support it.
“The playbook of these settlers is predicated on the notion that they will be appeased or ignored, and that well-meaning Jews the world over overlook their illegal and criminal actions.”
Rabbi Lev Taylor of the Kingston Liberal Synagogue said the sanctions signify that the government is “moving in the right direction.”
He added: “Some of my Israeli members have been campaigning for sanctions exactly like this … The Judaism in which I believe repudiates this brutal occupation.”
The co-leaders of Progressive Judaism in the UK, rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy, urged British Jews opposed to the sanctions to offer more than condemnatory statements against settler violence, adding: “Inaction is not neutral. It too is a political and moral choice.”
The UK’s measures, announced on Tuesday, were coordinated with France, Canada and nine other countries that are also introducing sanctions on Israel over the growth of settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law and are designed to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.
