Board of Deputies member quits in protest over Gaza ‘genocidal assault’
A member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews has resigned over what he described as the failure of its leaders to explicitly criticise “the Israeli government’s ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza”.
Speaking at a board meeting on Sunday, Daniel Grossman said he had lost confidence in the leadership of the board, a representative body made up of elected members from synagogues and Jewish organisations that describes itself as “the voice of the British Jewish Community”.
He said recent meetings between board leaders and Israeli ministers and officials, including foreign minister Gideon Saar, were “both untenable and morally bankrupt”.
Grossman, a deputy for the Union of Jewish Students who is studying at the University of Bristol, said board leaders had “both failed to act ethically and also to represent the increasing diversity of opinion” over Gaza within Jewish communities.
He said Israeli opposition figures including Yair Golan, the main opposition leader, and Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, were publicly recognising that atrocities are being committed.
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“What good are private words in plenaries when you continue to meet with Israeli government officials and oppose any real action to stop their crimes?” he said.
“How many more Palestinians have to be killed and Israeli hostages sacrificed before the board speaks out against Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza?”
As part of his work for the board, Grossman was a member of its international division and co-chaired a two-state solution working group.
Critical letter
Grossman was among 36 board members who last month signed a letter published in the Financial Times in which they strongly condemned Israel’s renewed assault on the Palestinian enclave and its withholding of food and aid which has left hundreds of thousands on the brink of starvation.
“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,” they wrote.
Leaders of the board accused the 36 deputies of “misrepresenting our community”, launched disciplinary proceedings against them, and suspended an executive committee member who had signed the letter.
Writing on social media shortly after publication of the letter following a meeting with Saar in London, board president Phil Rosenberg wrote: “Jewish leadership is standing up for peace & security in Israel & the Middle East… Unity is strength. Division serves only our enemies.”
But other prominent British Jewish figures have continued to speak up in support of the dissident deputies, and in condemnation of the Israeli government’s actions.
In another letter to the Financial Times, 30 rabbis from Reformist and Liberal synagogues said they too could “no longer turn a blind eye or remain silent”.
Last week, Laura Janner-Klausner, the former senior rabbi for Reform Judaism, told Middle East Eye: “There are many mainstream Jews who are seeing this as a complete moral and humanitarian disaster.”
And on Sunday, Jonathan Wittenberg, the senior rabbi for Masorti Judaism, wrote that Israel’s conduct of its assault on Gaza and withholding of aid “contradicts what we have painfully learned from our long history as victims of persecution and mass murder”.
Grossman’s resignation was welcomed on Tuesday by Naa’mod, a British Jewish organisation that opposes Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and is critical of the board.
“We commend his decision to resign - it was principled, urgent, and necessary,” it said in a statement on social media.
Sunday’s Board of Deputies meeting followed a visit to Jerusalem last week by a delegation including Rosenberg and Michael Wegier, the board’s chief executive, to attend a meeting of the World Jewish Congress, an international organisation representing Jewish communities around the world.
While there, Rosenberg and Wegier also met with Lapid and Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Palestinian-Israeli Hadash party, as well as foreign ministry officials.
Addressing Sunday’s meeting, Rosenberg described the Board of Deputies as a “proudly Zionist organisation”.
Acknowledging criticism of the Israeli government’s conduct of the war, Rosenberg said that “food should not be used as a weapon of war” and said board leaders had “been clear to Israeli leaders that we need to see aid flowing into Gaza”.
He condemned settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and described far-right government ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir as “a stain on the Zionist project”.
“Let me be clear: We strongly oppose rhetoric and actions aimed at the permanent forced displacement of populations, including the civilian population of Gaza,” he said.
But Rosenberg added that it had been a mistake for the British government to suspend free trade talks with Israel.
The board has previously criticised the suspension of some arms export licences to Israel, and the withdrawal by the current Labour government of the objection against the prosecution of Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court raised by the previous UK government.
In a statement published on Tuesday by Naa’mod, Grossman said: “It is imperative the board gains the courage to act as a truly representative and moral body for all of British Jewry.”
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