OPINION: A Tory peer thinks the Board has a left-wing agenda? Perhaps he should focus on facts
Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl responds to accusations by Conservative peer Lord Polak that under her the organisation has been "hijacked as a vehicle to push a left leaning agenda".
Having read the recent piece in the Jewish Chronicle accusing the Board of Deputies of having been “hijacked as a vehicle to push a left leaning agenda”, I wondered whether this was a perhaps late entry for a light-hearted Purim spiel.
I, for one, am interested to find out more about the apparent abundance of examples of the Board of Deputies exhibiting left-wing bias in its public positions.
Should we count my attendance and speech at the CFI event at the Conservative Party conference last year? Should we include what I said at the event the Board of Deputies co-hosted in November to celebrate the Abraham Accords, at which the Prime Minister spoke, where I acknowledged the Government’s record?
We are a community which is descended from both refugees and economic migrants who came to this country, and which traditionally faced a hostile reception when they did so. That is a statement of fact.
Perhaps we should add our organisation’s public backing for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, which the Government, to its great credit, is determined to move forward with. Clearly these are prime examples of the Board of Deputies being “hijacked as a vehicle to push a left-wing agenda.”
During the years when Jeremy Corbyn was Leader of the Opposition, the Board was a constant voice calling out the antisemitism which had been allowed to flourish within the Labour Party. Our organisation was jointly responsible for holding a rally outside of Parliament decrying the antisemitism that had infected that Party.
“Today’s British Jewish community is descended from refugees and/or migrants. We have significant concerns at the potential for newly proposed migration legislation to breach both the Refugee Convention and the Human Rights Act.” pic.twitter.com/HO0Y1VoPso
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) March 8, 2023
Respectfully, I do not recall those criticising us now for a perceived failure to be “apolitical” expressing similar qualms then. I would argue that an organisation which demonstrates that it is willing to call out either the Government or the Official Opposition is in fact demonstrating a marked lack of political bias.
The truth is that the Board of Deputies’ statements are intended to promote the interests and values of the British Jewish community.
The proposed “Illegal Migrants Bill” seriously risks breaching human rights legislation. The cover of the bill itself contains a statement from the Home Secretary, in respect to the European Convention on Human Rights, that “I am unable to make a statement that, in my view, the provisions of the Illegal Migration Bill are compatible with the Convention rights.”
I am not sure what “campaign” we are being accused of running. We have expressed measured concerns, to which we hope the Government will listen.
We are a community which is descended from both refugees and economic migrants who came to this country, and which traditionally faced a hostile reception when they did so. That is a statement of fact.
The Board has been accused of having “invoke[d] the historically traumatic migrant experience of the Jewish people as a means to press gang the whole community and its institutions into this partisan campaign.”
I am not sure what “campaign” we are being accused of running. We have expressed measured concerns, to which we hope the Government will listen.
Rather than making ill-judged references to 1930’s Germany, as one particular celebrity did this week, we can simply look back into our own country’s past instead. We can consider the Aliens Act 1905, which, while introducing the concept of asylum, was intended as a measure to stem the flow of migrants, many of whom were Jewish, into this country.
We cannot ignore the past. In fact, we are commanded not to. The book of Devarim, ParshatEikev – commands that “You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”.
And as long as I am President of the Board of Deputies – and, I hope, after my term ends and for many years to come – the organisation will continue, when it is deemed necessary, to make its voice heard on issues of clear significance for our community, regardless of which party is in office.
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