The NJA’s position, he said, “is to support the Israeli government as elected by Israelis and the democratic process”.
British groups that support Israel on a conditional basis, depending on who is in power or what action the government takes, is “almost anti-democratic”, Mond a former vice president of the Board of Deputies argued. “It is a sad matter of fact that many British Jews either don’t support Israel at all or whose support of Israel is conditional on it following a certain line.”
A newcomer on the scene – it was founded in May 2022 following a disagreement between Mond and Board of Deputies, NJA has about 750 dedicated members and a further 400 people who support the organisation in other ways.
Crucially, the group believes “it is not the duty” of British Jews to try to bring about change or interfere in Israeli domestic affairs, which has the potential to “damage” relations between the diaspora and Israel.
“We are totally opposed to different British Jewish groups getting involved internally in Israeli politics, [be they from the] left or right,” Mond said.
“I object to slagging off Israel and attacking Israeli politicians in the diaspora. I would never attack left-wing Israeli politicians, and I think it is utterly disgraceful that [certain groups and individuals] were very vocally opposed to Smotrich visiting the UK [in 2022] and feel free to vent their frustration in public. That went down badly in Israel, and even President Herzog condemned it.”
Danielle Bett of Yachad[Missing Credit]
On the other side of the debate, pro-Israel group Yachad, which is reticent about positioning itself firmly on the ideological spectrum but is comfortable with being seen as “in the liberal camp”, said British Jews “can be an active part of the positive change that many Israelis want to bring” to the country. Danielle Bett, Yachad’s director of communications, told the JC the group “has always without question supported Israel’s right to exist” but that there is “a massive difference between Israel as an idea, as a liberal Jewish democracy, and the current Israeli government. If we can separate those two things, we’ll be in a better place as a community.”
She said British Jews should “be listening to what Israelis on the ground are saying, what surveys show us, and help to build the kind of Israel we want to see and want to support”.
Yachad’s primary mission is to empower British Jews to support a political resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict via a two-state solution and it has in recent years also tried to “strengthen the voices of protesters” within Israel against the proposed judicial reforms. The group has more than 5,000 supporters in the UK, according to Bett. “I don’t think support for the [Israeli] government or state should be unconditional,” she said. “If we don’t believe something is not reflecting Jewish values then we ought to question it. If we want change, we should be part of that change.”
It is her experience that the British Jewish community has the “gut instinct” to defend Israel. “Especially after the horrors of October 7 that is really understandable,” she said. “It was the worst attack on Israel in its history, and especially when [one sees] people celebrating it online, it is natural to want to defend Israel.
“But as time has moved on, many [British Jews] have stayed in that zone [of defending Israel absolutely].”
British Jews, she believes, must “be awake to realities of what’s actually happening on the ground [in Israel], the politicising of the police, the rise of the far right, the huge increase in political and settler violence, who cause massive security issues to Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
She added: “We have the right to say when the government of Israel does not act on our behalf. It is our duty to call out hatred and racism, that doesn’t make us anti-Israel.” She said the most important thing is to “support the people of Israel, not the government”.
Both the NJA and Yachad said they strongly support the right to democratic debate in the UK and oppose shutting down the other side.
Gary Mond of the National Jewish Assembly[Missing Credit]