Board of Deputies president: Food should not be used as a weapon of war

Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg has directly criticised attempts by Israel and Hamas to use food aid as a “weapon of war”.

The Board’s chief said innocent Palestinian citizens are being left paying the price of crimes committed by the Islamic terror organisation.

In a well-received President’s statement at Sunday’s Plenary Meeting of the communal organisation, Rosenberg said the Board had made it “clear” to Israeli leaders that “we need to see aid flowing in Gaza.”

As he addressed Deputies, Rosenberg also said the situation in the West Bank was now “out of control” as he condemned both settler violence and the recent murder of a pregnant Israeli woman by terrorists there.

Condemning settler violence, the president branded Israeli far-right ministers  Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich “a stain on the Zionist project” adding “every time they open their mouths something appalling comes out.”

The Board has largely refrained from issuing official statements in response to Israel’s increasingly hardline military tactics in Gaza following the October 7 2023 Hamas massacre.

But in perhaps the toughest criticism of Israeli military tactics in Gaza yet to come from the organisation’s senior ranks, Rosenberg told Deputies that “while Hamas and Islamic Jihad have brought chaos to the region it is important that innocent Palestinian civilians do not pay the price for the crimes of terrorists.

“Put simply, food should not be used as a weapon of war.”

He added:”Israel must ensure the supply to Gaza and Hamas must not steal it when it comes in. ”

Rosenberg continued:”We have been clear to Israeli leaders that we need to see aid flowing into Gaza, not a basic amount, but enough to feed the civilian population.

Referencing Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, Rosenberg said:”They need to be reigned in… ideally they need to be kicked out.”

Looking to the future, Rosenberg also spoke of the need for increased diplomatic efforts and engagement with the embassies and governments  of Arab and Muslim majority countries.

He said the doctrine of conflict management of the past 15 years had failed.

“It merely breeds hatred, despair and extremism that drives people into the arms of Hamas,”added Rosenberg, who called for a new era of “conflict resolution.”

The Board president stressed that defeating Hamas “necessarily has military components” adding “they are an armed terrorist organisation after all.”

But he then continued:”But Hamas is also an idea. An idea built of despair.

“Replacing despair with hope is a key part of fighting Hamas too.”

He said”We all want this war to end as soon as possible

“But it cannot end in a way that just starts the clock until the next October 7 and the next war.”

Such scenario “would be good for neither Israelis nor Palestinians,” said Rosenberg.

Elsewhere in his speech, Rosenberg praised the UK government’s announcement about moves to proscribe Iran’s IRGC force.

But he said he belived it was a “mistake” for the government to suspend talks on a free trade deal with Israel.

“Rosenberg said seeing the UK and Israel argue was like “seeing our parents quarrel” adding:”We love them both dearly.”

In article for the Observer newspaper on Sunday Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg also said that “starving non combatants” ran counter to Jewish values.

The Senior Rabbi of the New North London synagogue said he was writing out of “deep concern for Israel, my people and for all human life.”