Jewish groups back stronger measures on Israel in letter to Andy Burnham
Leading members of Jewish civil society groups have written to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to adopt stronger measures on Israel and "oppose any further attempts to muzzle the Palestine marches".
This comes as the Burnham government prepares to announce a raft of new measures on the occupied West Bank, including a ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements.
Major British Jewish organisations, including the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, urged the government not to impose a ban on settlement goods earlier this week and met Burnham in Downing Street.
UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said on Monday that he had met Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and warned sanctions on Israel would have a "negative impact" on British Jews.
But on Thursday, leading members of Holocaust Survivors and Descendants against Gaza Genocide (HSD), Jewish Voice for Liberation (formerly Jewish Voice for Labour) and Jews for Justice for Palestinians, sent a letter to the prime minister arguing the opposite.
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Signatories of the letter include Stephen Kapos and Agnes Kory, who are Holocaust survivors.
Seen by MEE, the letter says: "There are several Jewish 'communities' and a wide diversity of views on Israel among Jewish people in the UK and we trust that you will meet with us and other members of the Jewish Bloc in the near future."
The letter also says: "We eagerly await your premiership in the light of your recent call for stronger action against Israel, along with your apology for the Labour Government's slowness to call for a ceasefire."
The signatories explain in the letter that they regularly march "along with the large Jewish Bloc on the Palestine Marches in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling out what we firmly believe has become a clear case of genocide".
They criticise the characterisation of pro-Palestine marches as antisemitic, saying hostility "has come not from our fellow pro-Palestinian protesters, from whom we have received only goodwill and support, but from the pro-Israel counter-demonstrators".
'Many Jews feel this anger and misery too'
The letter also refers to a previous letter signed by 44 Holocaust survivors and descendants of Holocaust survivors to Burnham's predecessor, Keir Starmer, in May.
That letter urged Starmer not to impose restrictions on pro-Palestine marches after the then-prime minister had suggested he would support restrictions on repeat marches in response to the antisemitic stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, an area of northwest London with a large Jewish population.
'We are not given any audience by the government, unlike the Jewish establishment bodies which are regularly welcomed in Whitehall'
– Jenny Manson, co-chair of Jewish Voice for Liberation
The signatories argued that pro-Palestine marches, which they took part in, were not linked to the antisemitic attacks.
Sarah Jones, then the minister for policing and crime, sent a reply to the letter, seen by MEE, noting that the "right to peaceful protest is a vital part of our democracy".
However, Jones defended "strengthened police powers to impose conditions on intimidatory protests near places of worship, and a new duty on senior officers to consider the cumulative impact of repeated protest activity when determining whether to impose conditions".
The letter to Burnham this week urges the new prime minister to "oppose any further attempts to muzzle the Palestine marches".
It criticises Labour's "treatment of allegations of antisemitism" under Starmer's leadership, which "resulted in around 70 Jewish members of the Party being accused in some way of antisemitism".
The letter says this "has given Israel a protective cloak around the brutality of its actions" and "has undermined the right to freedom of speech and the right to protest".
MEE has contacted Downing Street for comment.
Jenny Manson, a co-chair of Jewish Voice for Liberation, who left the Labour Party last year, told MEE: "We ask that Andy Burnham recognise that the mass marches in support of Gaza are a legitimate expression of the widespread horror felt in Britain at Israel's war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
"Many Jews feel this anger and misery too," Manson said.
"Generally, the diversity of Jewish communities and Jewish views is largely ignored. We are not given any audience by the government, unlike the Jewish establishment bodies which are regularly welcomed in Whitehall."
She added: "And as to the message of the marchers, we ask that Burnham hears and responds positively to the marchers' demand, to immediately stop arming Israel."
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced last month that the government would unveil "measures" against Israel over the new E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem that would effectively cut the occupied West Bank in two.
Chief Rabbi Mirvis said earlier this week after the meeting with Miliband: "I told the foreign secretary that many within the UK Jewish community will view such measures with deep dismay, at a time when the vilification of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish State has already reached unprecedented levels."
The Board of Deputies said in a statement after meeting Burnham that sanctions on Israeli settlements risk "harming the legitimate connection between British Jews and places of great religious and cultural significance".
However, Na'amod, an anti-occupation Jewish group, this week expressed support for stronger measures on Israel, calling them the "minimum response" to Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank.
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