Our community risks tearing itself apart if we do not recognise there are multiple truths

It is true that tens of thousands of Gazans demonstrated and protested during this period of time; the vast majority of them did so peacefully.

Families attended, faces were painted, and music was played as Gazans took part in what they called "The Great March of Return" highlighting their demand to return to their ancestral homes in what are now the borders of Israel.

Demonstrations take place every year within Palestinian communities on March 30 (known as Land Day for Palestinians) and May 15 (Nakba Day), but this year Palestinians in Gaza had been planning these six weeks of demonstrations since December, shortly after the US announced it was intending to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

Utter desperation within the Gaza strip drove thousands of people out onto the streets.

The Gaza strip has been declared as being uninhabitable by 2020, and the Israeli security establishment and the IDF have made it clear to the Government of Israel that unless there is a significant change to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, renewed violence between Israel and Hamas is likely.

Egypt, The Palestinian Authority and Hamas all bear responsibility of the total strangulation of the Gaza Strip, and it is also widely understood that the continued Israeli blockade of Gaza is having a devastating impact.

None of this takes away from a further truth that Hamas rules the Gaza Strip with an iron fist and that there is plenty of evidence that they encouraged and incited violence at the Gaza Border.

Since May 14 they have claimed 50 of the dead were members of Hamas.

Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was quoted as having said he would like to see people break through the border fence.

People were told to bring knives, daggers and handguns to the border, and stones, Molotov cocktails and kites bearing incendiary devices were thrown over the border with one armed Hamas cell also trying to infiltrate.

Yet, even with the serious nature of the violence on the border, some of which undoubtedly posed an immediate threat, and with Hamas claiming 50 of the victims, there are reasonable and legitimate questioned to be asked of the IDF and the large number of dead.

It is for this reason that many in the international community, including friends of Israel such as the British government, have called for an open investigation into the violence. Membership or support of Hamas does not necessarily mean that you are legitimate target.

In a world of multiple truths, it is possible to both recognise the real danger Hamas poses, and ask questions about how events played out.

The reality is we are unlikely to know exactly how many were killed and injured or exactly how many of those killed were armed and posing an immediate danger when they were killed.  And the chances of an international investigation bringing to light these facts is slim.

As the old adage says, the first casualty of war is truth.

But surely for a community where the vast majority of its members count themselves as supporters of Israel one way or another, surely the sensible response should be to acknowledge all of these truths?  

When the Board of Deputies released a statement responding to the violence which simply laid the blame for the violence squarely and unquestioningly solely in the hands of Hamas, with no further context, they failed dismally to represent large numbers in the community who do not share such a black and white view of the world.

That’s why so many active members of the community within a few hours of it being released had signed a public letter to the Board of Deputies, organised by Yachad, explaining their immense dissatisfaction at being represented in this manner.

The decision by a group of individuals to recite, in public, Kaddish for those that were killed in Gaza was not an event Yachad was involved in -  contrary to some of the "untruths" circulating to suggest otherwise - because it is our belief that it also failed to address or represent the complexity of the situation.

The sad reality about the debate raging in the British Jewish community about how we should respond to the violent events of the past few week is that it masks the most important question which is how to prevent another round of violence, and what role we have as British Jewish supporters of Israel in lending our support to those on the ground who are desperately searching for a political resolution to this conflict.

Because when the dead are buried, the one truth that will remain is that in the absence of a political agreement, we will find ourselves here again and again.

And as the violence gets worse, our community will pull itself apart embroiled in a debate about what the truth really is.

Hannah Weisfeld is the director and a founder of Yachad