Sir Mick Davis warns young Jews ‘face a two-pronged attack’ on Israel connection

One of British Jewry’s most senior figures has warned young Jews feel their support for Israel must be “the exception to their values, rather than the embodiment of them”.

Sir Mick Davis, a former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council who also chaired then Prime Minister David Cameron’s Holocaust Memorial Commission and is now the chief executive of the Conservative Party, made the comments in an opinion piece published on Times of Israel this week.

In it, Davis says young diaspora Jews “face a two-pronged attack on their connection to Israel” – both anti-Semitism on the left of British politics and Israeli Government actions.

“They see their pride in Israel dented by actions taken by the Israeli authorities that undermine their Jewish values,” he wrote.

“Whether through the constant trickle of ugly legislation like last year’s Nation-State Bill, the racism of
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, a callous approach to African asylum seekers, discrimination against progressive Judaism or ongoing settlement expansion, young diaspora Jews are too often being asked to make their attachment to Israel the exception to their values rather than the embodiment of them.”

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