The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) have been accused of “erasing Jews,” after publishing statements on the anniversary of October 7 that failed to mention the Jewish victims of the massacre.
The Jewish network at the MoJ accused the department of publishing a “deeply inappropriate statement,” while Jewish staff at the DWP are understood to have found the message “very upsetting”.
Accusations of whitewashing centre around the fact that neither of the two government department statements published on October 7 addressed the Jewish tragedy, instead making broader comments about war in the Middle East and support available to staff.
This omission was in “stark contrast” to government departments’ responses to the summer race riots, according to some Jewish staff.
Both statements from the MoJ and DWP noted the conflict across the Middle East – but the Jewish network at the MoJ said that October 7 “should have been a specific day of commemoration for the horrific events that took place a year ago.
“Jewish people have as much right as anyone to be commemorated,” the staff said.
In an email to the executive committee of the MoJ, Jewish civil servants claimed: “We have watched as the department has rightly sent messages this summer standing against Islamophobia and has stood in allyship with other minoritised groups at times of political divide - yet, on such a poignant day for the Jewish community, we have not been heard or recognised.
“It seems that in your pursuit to not offend the majority, you have offended the very people you were meant to be commemorating on this day.”
The network claimed that Jewish civil servants had advised the MoJ executive committee to “re-work” the statement, but this advice was not heeded.
“We are at a loss to understand how this was agreed as the right course of action,” the Jewish group stated, adding that the MoJ statement was an “outlier” among other government departments that showed solidarity with Jewish staff.
The MoJ statement was made in response to the Prime Minister’s remarks on the anniversary of October 7. The Jewish group said, “It is unclear why the MoJ was unable to echo [the PM's] message, or even to reference what actually happened on October 7.”
“It would have been better to have simply linked to the Prime Minister's statement, than to have issued this sweeping accompanying statement, which erases the Jewish experience from a Jewish massacre, on its first anniversary,” the letter from Jewish staff concluded.
A statement from the DWP’s Permanent Secretary, Sir Peter Schofield, also did not mention the Jewish victims of the massacre.
Schofield told staff: “I know, like me, many of you continue to be horrified by the atrocities, death toll and ongoing conflict in Israel, Gaza and across the Middle East.
“The conflict continues to prompt strong feelings and reactions,” Schofield wrote, before referring to his “pride” over the DWP values ‘we care’ and ‘we value everybody' which “have created a department that is respectful of different views and the different experiences colleagues may have of conflict.”
The JC reached out to DWP and MoJ for comment.
