OPINION: The hostage rally was not the place for a political sermon

Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy have spoken out strongly after being ejected from the podium at last Sunday’s rally for the hostages. They have lamented being heckled and removed in front of thousands of their fellow Jews, and, in some ways, it is possible to sympathise with them. The decision to de-platform them was uncivil and unwarranted, hardly showing British Jewry at its finest.

But what neither rabbi will admit is that they fundamentally misread their audience. This was not a public debate on Gaza or a synagogue discussion. It was a disarmingly raw, emotionally powerful public call for hostages to be released from their torment in Gaza. The fate of the hostages, too often sidelined by the mainstream media, was the whole point of the rally, and remembering their appalling plight should have been the sole focus of the event.

The rabbis sought to broaden the discussion to incorporate criticisms of the Israeli government, of the settlers and of alleged policies of starvation. It was not the time and the place to import such a political agenda.

To be clear, it is not that Israel is beyond criticism in this war, nor is it the case that Palestinian suffering should be ignored. There are legitimate criticisms of settler violence, of Israel’s restriction of media access in Gaza and of ministers who continually spout extremist rhetoric.

Israel’s lack of a day-after plan suggests a failure of strategic focus that has bedevilled much of the conflict. Moreover, some of the domestic policies pursued by the Netanyahu government are clearly divisive and counterproductive.

But it is not as if Jewish communal bodies have been silent on these issues. Indeed, the Board of Deputies has been vocal in speaking out about the perceived shortcomings of Israel’s aid policies and has never shied away from expressing its distaste for the Israeli far right, understandably so.

Perhaps the point is that amid a cacophony of endless anti-Israeli criticism, revolving around settlements, extremism, aid and civilian casualties, this was a rare and much-needed opportunity for the community to focus internally on Israeli victims.

It was also a commemoration graced by relatives of the hostages who are, lest we forget, still broken by the trauma they have lived through. To hijack that single-minded focus by offering a politically slanted sermon on the war was inappropriate and unforgivable.

Moreover, some of the political sentiments the rabbis expressed were tone-deaf to current realities. In their speech, Rabbis Baginsky and Levy were insistent that the war posed a danger to both Israelis and to the hostages. That theme pervaded the Havdalah ceremony held the day before, where calls for an immediate ceasefire were made.

Yet while there are understandable concerns that the current proposed operation in central Gaza will endanger the hostages, the rabbis forget that ending this war is not in Israel’s gift, nor has it ever been. They seem oblivious to the fact that there is no sound alternative on the table right now and that Israel’s enemy is so truly malign that it will extract only the most unconscionable price for ending the conflict.

So, one may share the rabbis’ vision for a renewal of hope between Israelis and Palestinians. But hard realities cannot be wished away either. 7 October has permanently altered the landscape in Israel and forced a reckoning with many of the older liberal pieties. It is incumbent on us all to understand that.

That said, the Rabbis should not have been removed from the podium. It may be interpreted by ‘progressive commentators’ as a sign that the community is intolerant of dissidents and wedded to just one viewpoint.

As we know, neither view is correct. If Jews are famous for anything, it is their disputatiousness and ability to hold multiple thoughts in their heads. Mainstream voices should not be silenced or traduced.

Clearly, there is something for the organisers of Sunday’s rally to reflect on here. But similarly, the rabbis may choose to engage in some meaningful reflection of their own.

• Jeremy Havardi is a freelance journalist and author