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Chief Rabbi says UK settlement trade ban will be met with ‘deep dismay’ by Jewish community
Mirvis says 'The intended policy will not influence Israeli decision-making in the way the Government intends'
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has told Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband that the UK Jewish community will view the government’s proposed ban on West Bank settlement trade with “deep dismay.”
Confirming he had met the Foreign Secretary last Friday, Mirvis said: “While we share fervent hopes for a future of peace and security in the Middle East, I explained why I believe the UK Government’s intended sanctions will be counter-productive and even endanger such a vision of peace.”
In a lengthy statement, Mirvis added: “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 intended policy will not influence Israeli decision-making in the way the Government intends. Instead, it risks inflicting real harm across the region. Given the obvious challenges of defining and implementing such measures, there is a clear danger that they will spiral into a de facto boycott of trade with Israel more broadly, damaging the long-term relationship between our two countries and threatening the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers.
“These measures will also disproportionately affect British Jews because of our close religious, family, charitable and educational ties to Israel. Over recent years, we have seen repeatedly that when rhetoric towards Israel escalates, hostility towards Jews is never far behind.”
Reflecting on the surge in settler violence in the West Bank, Mirvis added: “I strongly condemn the reprehensible violence perpetrated against Palestinians by a small number of extremists, yet the UK Government’s proposals will only embolden the tiny minority who support such criminality, while penalising countless others who abhor it.
“The stated justification for punishing an ally in this way is Israel’s long-planned construction of homes in the E1 area. Yet successive peace efforts, from Oslo to Camp David and beyond, have envisaged a final agreement in which this area would remain under Israeli sovereignty. It is therefore difficult to escape the painful conclusion that domestic political considerations are driving foreign policy, the impact of which is negative both for prospects for peace in the Middle East and for the UK Jewish community.”
Mirvis’s remarks coincided with further criticism of the government’s plan by the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council.
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