News
In full: An open letter to the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
To add your signature, see below
October 13, 2022 13:54
To add your signature, see below
October 13, 2022 13:54Dear President,
We are proud British Jews. While we differ in terms of political opinions and religious practice, we are united in the belief that Jerusalem (Yerushalaim) is the capital of the State of Israel, the Holy City of Judaism and the beating heart of the Jewish people. Her importance to Jews brings together religion, culture and peoplehood. In the words of the Psalmist: “If I forsake thee, Jerusalem, let my right arm forget its strength”. On a more prosaic note, it is the prerogative of Israel to determine her capital city – just like any other country in the world.
We therefore note with satisfaction and applaud your call to the British Government to relocate the UK embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We wholeheartedly support it and encourage you to be even more vocal in that respect.
We note with dismay that certain groups that are active on the fringes of our community have now launched a politicised campaign criticising your call. We wanted to reassure you that such views are the domain of a tiny minority. Their ‘arguments’ don’t just run contrary to the views of the vast majority of Jews, but they are full of internal contradictions and do not withstand close scrutiny.
For instance, they say that such embassy relocation “would jeopardise the prospect of a political resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict”. Why should that be so? The United Kingdom operates – for many years now – the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, which is its diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority. On the other hand, the UK Embassy to Israel is currently located in Tel Aviv. So, far from prejudicing a political resolution, relocating the Embassy to Jerusalem would, in fact, constitute a long-awaited and necessary correction of what is currently an unfair situation.
As for the argument that moving the Embassy to Jerusalem “regardless of which neighbourhood [it] would be moved to – would be to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the entire city”, why would that be so? The US embassy to Israel is currently located in Jerusalem – but this has no impact on views regarding sovereignty, territory and borders: the US Administration continues to promote the two-state solution.
Some are pushing a new ‘Project Fear’, by claiming that relocating the embassy will trigger acts of violence by the Palestinian population – and Israeli responses to it. The same people are misleadingly trying to connect the 2018 Hamas-initiated violence at the Gaza border with former President Trump’s decision to relocate the US embassy. This is false not because we say it, but according to the very instigators of that violence – the leaders of Hamas: that ‘operation’ was entitled ‘The Great March of Return’; its declared purpose wasa ‘return’ to the entire State of Israel – not to Jerusalem. In fact, Hamas and other Palestinian terror organisations do not need a ‘reason’ to engage in violence – they do so periodically, as it is their main raison d’être. In any case, the United Kingdom cannot allow its foreign policy to be held hostage to acts of violence or threats thereof. This has to do not with sovereignty over Jerusalem, but indeed with UK sovereignty over its own political decisions.
The same campaigners try to exploit the current economic situation by hypocritically claiming that relocating the embassy would constitute “diverting millions of pounds”. Again, this is false. The relocation to Jerusalem would enable both the embassy and the Consulate General to operate out of the same compound. The Government would be able not just to dispose of the very expensive site in Tel Aviv, but to eliminate the many inefficiencies resulting from the operation of two different diplomatic compounds. And more: while currently the embassy personnel are located in Tel Aviv, they are required to travel to Jerusalem for meetings with Israeli officials. Relocating the embassy closer to the seat of Israel’s government and parliament would cut travel and accommodation expenses, would reduce environmental impact and would increase staff efficiency, as they would not waste so much time on the road.
It is, unfortunately, unsurprising that your critics’ ‘arguments’ make so little sense. We are talking about groups that claim to be ‘pro-Israel’, while their entire social media output promotes positions that are opposed by the vast majority of Israelis. We therefore believe that their ‘arguments’ are not just wrong, but disingenuous – cut out of whole cloth to serve the peculiar ideological inclinations of a tiny constituency.
We urge you to ignore their politicised rumblings and continue to act as representative of the mainstream Jewish community, calling the UK Government to restore justice by relocating its mission to Israel to the Jewish state’s capital, Jerusalem.
The full list of signatories can be viewed here.
To add your signature, you may do so here.