‘We reject your assurances – you make us unsafe’: Synagogue delivers furious rebuke to Green council leader

A  synagogue has rejected a message from a Green council leader attempting to “reassure” them in the wake of the party’s “Zionism is Racism” vote, telling him that “you may see no connection between the ceaseless vilification of Israel, the blood libels that you and your party regularly trot out, and the hostility to Jews in this country, but we do.”

Councillor Mark Blake, the leader of Haringey council is understood to have written to a number of Synagogues in the borough following the passing of the “Zionism is Racism” vote at Green party conference, saying that “the motion does not change Haringey Council’s policies, priorities or ways of working – we remain committed to fighting antisemitism and working proactively with Jewish communities to prioritise community safety for all.”

At the Green party conference on Sunday, members voted to approve a motion claiming that “Zionism is Racism”, which among other things expresses support for violent “resistance”. Party members present also overwhelmingly voted against an amendment specifically designed to protect Jewish Green party members who attend Synagogues or Jewish community centres.

In his email, Blake also described how he knew that the adoption of the motion “will be a cause of concern for people in our borough, and I want to acknowledge those concerns and would welcome the chance to hear them directly from you.

“As Leader of the Council, I want to reassure you that I will continue to work closely with our community partners to tackle racism in all its forms, listen to the concerns of our communities, and ensure everyone feels safe and respected.”

In response, Highgate United Synagogue told Blake that “we take it from both the tone and the content of your email that you are deeply embarrassed with the decision taken by your party to not only brand Zionism as racism but to call for the eradication by any means necessary including violence, of the only Jewish state, the only practising democracy in the Middle East, and also home to half of the world’s Jewish population.

“We are not surprised you are embarrassed. The policy decision which has not just been endorsed by but was publicly celebrated by the Haringey branch of the Green Party, of which we assume you are a member, is thus aligning itself with Hamas, a genocidal, homophobic and misogynistic Islamist terrorist organisation not only responsible for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, but countless murders and torture of its own people. You may not be aware that members of our synagogue have close relatives and friends who perished in that pogrom… not to mention other horrendous terrorist atrocities carried out in the name of the resistance that your party supports.”

The leader of the Green party, the self-described “anti-Zionist” Zack Polanski, did not vote on the motion, instead choosing to leave his own party conference in order to campaign in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election, where he was standing as a candidate. On Thursday, Polanski lost the by-election, being beaten by Sagal Abdi-Wali, the Labour candidate.

“Our synagogue, along with the majority of British synagogues, recites weekly Sabbath prayers for both the Royal Family of the United Kingdom and the State of Israel and will continue to do so, irrespective of what you or other Green Party members think”, the letter, which was signed by the Synagogue’s rabbi, Nicky Liss, and its co-chairs, Jennifer Josephs and Anthony Silverman, continued.

“Love of Zion and a hope to be able to return to live in our ancestral homeland is integral to all streams of Judaism, as, it so happens, is stewardship of nature and respect for all life. During the appalling Middle Eastern war, we prayed every week for an end to hostilities and an end to all suffering, of Palestinians as well as Jews and for a full and lasting peace.”

In the wake of the conference vote, the Green party has been widely criticised by other UK political parties, as well as by the European Greens international grouping, which said it “unequivocally distance[d]” itself from the motion and said that it would “immediately demand clarity from the leadership and parliamentary group of GPEW [Green Party of England and Wales].”

The Highgate Synagogue letter went on to tell Councillor Blake: “We don’t accept your assurances that we are safe under your watch. You may see no connection between the ceaseless vilification of Israel, the blood libels that you and your party regularly trot out, and the hostility to Jews in this country, but we do.

“If this motion does not mean that Jews in Haringey who have family or friends in Israel, or who attend our synagogue, or who maybe aren’t religious but believe that there is a place for a haven for the tattered remnant of the most persecuted race on earth, are considered by you and your party as racists and by implication fair game for ostracism, intimidation, violence or worse, please explain to us what else it means. And if that is indeed what it means, and we are pretty sure that those who voted for it believe that is precisely what it means, how can we as Jews feel safe when the largest party of the borough we live in, entirely peacefully up to now, publicly align yourself with the most virulent jew-hating racists of all, Hamas and the Nazis.”

The Synagogue representatives described how “As it is, despite living in one of the most peaceful and crime free parts of the borough, we have had as a synagogue to invest substantial sums in building terrorism-proof fences round our premises, and employ both volunteers and professional security with stab vests to ensure we can continue to function not just as a place of worship but as a focus for our community.

“In addition to our daily threat of the kind of lethal attacks we saw in Manchester and closer to home in Golders Green, we are having to cope with myriad, not so trivial, microaggressions such that our elderly are frightened to identify as Jewish when going into an NHS hospital, parents are worried about sending their children to universities for fear of the abuse they are likely to receive, and young Jews starting their careers are hiding their identity in case it damages their prospects or leads to ostracism and abuse in the workplace.

“That is a direct result of you and your comrades’ obsessive and ignorantly one-sided view of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts and your determination to bring that obsession into every facet of life here in Britain.  So your embarrassment is not enough. If you really want us to feel you do not agree with the racist and genocidal implications of your party’s policy, the least we can expect is for you to publicly resile yourself from that policy and commit yourself and your party colleagues to reverse that policy and to educate themselves about the realities of the Middle East conflict, and about Jewish life, before you pronounce on these matters with such unshakeable certainty again.”

All of the major Jewish denominations in the UK have denounced the Green party for adopting a policy they have described as both “racist” and “antisemitic”. Earlier today, Vivien Lichtenstein, the leader of the Jewish Greens group, called on Zack Polanski to resign as Green Party leader. However, a vote of no confidence has reportedly been called within Jewish Greens against Lichtenstein herself.

Jewish News understands that the recent influx of far-left members into the Green party has in turn led to a significant number of explicitly anti-Zionist Jews joining Jewish Greens, altering the make-up and outlook of a body which, though critical of Israel, has never previously been explicitly anti-Zionist.