British rabbis split over UK sanctions on Israeli settlements
Senior rabbis have backed or cautiously supported targeted sanctions, challenging claims that British Jews hold a uniform view.
Senior British rabbis have backed, or expressed qualified support for, UK sanctions targeting Israeli settlements, arguing that concern over the measures must not obscure reported settler violence and settlement expansion.
The Guardian reported that rabbis Jonathan Wittenberg, Alexandra Wright, Jeremy Gordon and Lev Taylor supported the sanctions or called for stronger action. Wittenberg and Wright said they had witnessed the effects of settler violence in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair.
The intervention followed condemnation from Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council. Mirvis described the sanctions as a “dark day for British Jews” and warned they could embolden people who use hatred against Jews.
Progressive Jewish leaders Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy called sanctions a “clumsy tool” but said measures directed at settlements should not be equated with an attack on Jews. They also said inaction was a political and moral choice. The rabbis distinguished the targeted measures from the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, alongside France, Canada and nine other countries. The UK government says Israel’s occupation is unlawful and settlement expansion threatens the future of a Palestinian state.
Israel responded by closing the British consulate in Jerusalem and banning 12 British MPs and activists. The material contains no robust survey data on British Jewish opinion specifically on settlement sanctions, and the positions of individual rabbis do not establish a view held by the wider community.
