In February, a Survation poll found that 52 per cent of the community believed that the far-right ministers in Israel affected their view of the country, while 58 per cent maintained that British Jewish leaders should still meet those politicians.
“The data on how British Jews fundamentally feel about Israel show a fair degree of consistency over the past decade,” says Jonathan Boyd, executive director of Jewish Policy Research. “The proportion saying that ‘supporting Israel’ is an important part of their Jewish identities today is more or less identical to a decade ago.”
He added: “If I had to try to characterise what Is happening at the moment, it is that at a collective level, Israel remains as important as ever to British Jews because the connections run so deep, but a clear majority is troubled by the moral and political stances of the current government.”
The Survation poll, commissioned by Jewish News, revealed a broad generational split, with younger people reporting a weaker connection to Israel than their older relatives.
Overall, 77 per cent said that diaspora Jews should be free to express criticism of Israel publicly, though older people were more reticent to do so.
With so many complex divisions opening up, the older generation and the Orthodox have felt particularly alarmed by the scale of the protests.
Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, the Orthodox rabbi of Mill Hill Synagogue, told the JC the Parliament Square protests were a mistake.
“There are people who support the current government in Israel and there are people who oppose the government,” he said. “We don’t need to add to the bad feeling with protests and airing public grievances.”
Britain’s oldest Jewish community, the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, has not commented on the matter but has notably not encouraged any participation in the UK protests.
In Israel, activism has reached such a fever pitch that some dissenters are now afraid to voice their concerns.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a 36-year-old gay Jerusalemite told the JC: “As a member of the LGBT community in particular, I really don’t feel I can speak out against the protests.
“But I don’t support what they’re doing, nor the damage it’s doing to Israel’s reputation internationally. I can’t say it to my family, or even at work, because there’s just no way of having a reasonable and calm discussion about it all. More people than you might think are in favour of the reforms, give or take some details. But you just can’t say so.”
Many both in Israel and the diaspora accept that the Prime Minister’s proposals hold some value, even if they are uncomfortable about his bedfellows in the cabinet and his own legal woes.
But the left-wing protesters are mostly unwilling to accept any detail of the reforms, while right-wing activists are also reluctant to compromise.
Hannah Weisfeld of Yachad
Hannah Weisfeld, director of Yachad, who addressed a rally of 1,500 people in Parliament Square earlier this month, told the JC: “This is a historic moment. Diaspora Jews must pledge their support to those Israelis who are fighting against this extremist government.
“Israeli democracy is under threat from the destruction of the Supreme Court and removal of any checks and balances against the government.”
In Israel, Hadas Ragolsky, 50, organiser of the eye-catching Handmaid’s Tale protests — in which groups of women attend rallies in red cloaks and white bonnets in a nod to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel — told the JC: “I think we have got to the point where this government is trying to make Israel instead of a democracy into a dictatorship. We need to use any tool we can to fight against it.
An aerial shot of the Tel Aviv protests (Flash 90)
“Yes, we are approaching Jews and non-Jews around the globe to interfere and say, ‘Hey Israel, you used to be a beacon of women’s rights, of minority tights, of democracy, if you decide to be a dictatorship we will not support you’.”
Grandmother-of-seven Anne Berkeley, 70, a Scottish immigrant to Israel, is the organiser of the Grandmothers’ Protest, the latest splinter group to join the demonstrations in Tel Aviv.
She said: “I thought maybe we, the grandmas of the country, should protest. There are lots of groups like our grandmas’ group that are springing up, of people going out into the street to protest.”
Her concerns are not just about judicial reforms, she added, but about the makeup of the government itself.
“Netanyahu has brought into bed some very extreme right-wingers, I would call them zealots, with extreme views with a lust for power,” she said.
“You only have to look at history to see that there have been democratically elected governments that have then changed. They’re elected according to the law, but then they use their power in government to change the law and have become dictators.”
