Israel’s top UK diplomat grilled at Board meeting on failure to tackle settler violence

Israel’s most senior diplomat in the UK faced tough scrutiny at Sunday’s Board of Deputies plenary meeting, as he was pressed to explain why Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government is not doing more to tackle what was described as “appalling” settler violence in the West Bank.

Christian Cantor, the current Chargé d’Affaires at the Israeli Embassy in London, acknowledged to attendees, “there are concerns regarding the extent to which that violence, those violent actions are being addressed by the Israeli authorities.”

But he added: “The violence that you are focusing on—it’s not that it doesn’t exist; it does. But the violence is also broader, and Israelis are under attack.”

He continued, “I totally understand that this reality is independent of the other reality, but de facto, the level of enforcement that is required in order to deal with those issues is such that sometimes it’s very, very difficult.”

The Israeli official added: “I do share those concerns that you’re raising, and obviously they are conveyed all the time back home. All I can say is that we all hope that those efforts will lead to a cessation of those actions.”

Cantor reflected on the “Israeli psyche” in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks, urging Deputies to show the same compassion towards Israel’s efforts to tackle settler violence as they do towards the UK government’s attempts to fight antisemitism at home.

The diplomat also addressed forthcoming UK government sanctions, warning they could emerge in the next few days and predicting a deterioration in relations between Israel and the UK over the coming months.

“We’ll have to go probably through difficult weeks and months before we’ll come up again, hopefully with an improved and better relationship between Israel and the UK,” Cantor said.

“We’re expecting next week, in the coming days, some measures that are going to be imposed on Israel,” he added. “I’m afraid that it’s going to happen, and also, what probably will happen is that my government will retaliate, and this is something that we’re very much concerned that will probably or has the potential to draw us into a cycle of tit for tat and some retaliation and counter-retaliation, hopefully limited in time and magnitude.”

Cantor said he had raised concerns with counterparts in London, warning that “statements, although that are not directed or put it this way, prediction statements that are not necessarily intended to create incitement or violence could have the potential, given the circumstances that we live, to inflame the environment and create a very dangerous dynamic.”

He warned this could create “a permissive atmosphere for those that are really radicals to take action, and this is something that worries me a lot, both against Jewish communities here, but also against the embassy.”

Cantor also acknowledged that some diaspora Jews are openly angry at Israeli government policies and their impact on communities worldwide.

“I do understand. I do understand that there are differences in policies between some factions or some parts in the Jewish diaspora and the current government in Israel, and we respect those critics,” Cantor said. “We hear them,” added Cantor. “We convey them back to Jerusalem, and I think that for many—not all, but for many—there are also good answers.”

Addressing Israel’s failure to send a new ambassador to replace the now long-departed Tzipi Hotovely, Cantor said: “I was an ambassador myself, and I understand what it means when a country does not have an ambassador, but rather an acting ambassador.”

Hotovely’s replacement, Tzachi Braverman, had been approved by the UK, but since Braverman now faces two police investigations in Israel, his appointment has been postponed.

“We are very much aware of the need for an official ambassador serving here; we understand that the symbolic representation of the state of Israel could be much more significant with an ambassador,” Cantor added. “Having said that, I can reassure you that any engagement that the state of Israel or the embassy has to make vis-à-vis the British or the UK authorities is being addressed and being done.”

“The fact that an ambassador is not now acting here or present here does not undermine any of our actions that are needed with the UK government.”