Bernard Spiegal

Mainstream, establishment Jewish opinion on Israel and Palestine, as promulgated and vigorously promoted by the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), is facing a challenge. A challenge from within the depth of the body itself.

In a statement to the Financial Times (16 April), thirty-six – out of over 300 – Deputies signed a public statement severely critical of Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza and the West Bank . They write:

‘…as representatives of the British Jewish out of love for Israel and deep concern for its future. The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out.

It’s not clear if their claim to be representative of the UK Jewish community is a slip of the tongue, or an unsubtle challenge to the BoD’s perennial claim to fulfil that role. In fact, the mantle of representativeness settles on no-one, on no one body, for there is not one homogeneous UK Jewish community, one with all the wrinkles and contours ironed out.

From their perspective, the signatories do not stint in their condemnation of the Netanyahu government:

‘This most extremist of Israeli governments is openly encouraging violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, strangling the Palestinian economy and building more new settlements than ever. This extremism also targets Israeli democracy, with the independence of the judicial system again under fierce attack, the police increasingly resembling a militia and repressive laws are being advanced as provocative partisan populism is bitterly dividing Israeli society.’

There are a number of things that can be said about the statement, not least what took them so long to reach their conclusions given that Israel’s ethnic cleansing, by the statement’s date (April 2025), had been sustained for some nineteen months, and continuing. To say nothing of the previous seventy-seven years of oppression by the Zionist state. The signatories fear:

‘Israel’s soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to. Silence is seen as support for policies and actions that run contrary to our Jewish values’.

All this begs the question as to what qualities the signatories believe are constitutive of ‘Israel’s soul’ that they so dearly love: the Nakba? The Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem? The thousands of deaths, maiming along with embedding malnutrition as a weapon of war? The demolitions and displacements of Palestinians from their land and livelihoods? The Nation State law enshrining Jewish Supremacy as the foundation of the Israeli state? And more…

Nevertheless, the signatories deserve respect – there have been indications that other Deputies would have signed the letter, but were anxious about the possible consequences of speaking out – and acknowledgement of their courage. It is not easy to break out of a hermetically sealed, self-referencing, self-justifying cult-like entity: the BoD.

The BoD, clearly rattled by this renegade display, rushed to shore up the ramparts of its previously impenetrable, groupthink domain. Whereas ramparts generally aim to keep enemies out, here the aim was to keep dissent within the edifice, there the better to smother it.

Unfamiliar with internal dissent, certainly if publicly expressed, the BoD, flustered and confused, angry, hurt, afeared that its authority was draining away, was unsure how it should react to the 36 Deputies’ high-profile statement.

So it chose bluster and insult.

Phil Rosenberg, President of the Board of Deputies, sought to re-establish his and the Board’s authority:

…as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, I speak for the organisation as a whole’.

Rosneberg then seeks to downplay the significance of the Deputies letter urging us not to ‘confuse minor dissent with overwhelming consensus – British Jews reject blame-shifting and demand Hamas be held accountable’. He then urges us – he’s obviously talking to Jews – ‘to remember that unity is strength. Divisions serve only our enemies’. In other words, in relation to Israel, UK Jews are required to toe the Zionist, Israeli-state line, and the BoD is there to make sure that we do.

Existential threat

The BoD recognises that the dissenting Deputies represent an existential threat to its mission. The consensual dam that up to now has held back the turbulent waters of dissent, is breached; or at least is in the process of crumbling.

In a sure sign that the BoD is out of its depth, it has moved to institute disciplinary procedures against the 36 Deputies:

‘Following multiple complaints by Deputies and the public, all 36 signatories of the letter to the Financial Times are now subject to a complaints procedure in accordance with Appendix G to the Board of Deputies’ Constitution.’

The move to disciplinary procedures is the attempt to neuter the political content of the 36’s statement, to ignore the substantive points being made, side-tracking the issue to a technical, procedural context. This suggests that the Board ‘s credibility relies on a rigid, internal consensus of its own making, one that brooks no opposition.

Yet, all around, the Board’s sway no longer holds. Beyond the world of the DoB, indeed in reaction to it, counter-voices have and are emerging.

Jewish News reports that the thirty-six signatories all represent Reform or Liberal communities.

Na’amod , an organisation that seeks to ‘to end our community’s support for apartheid and occupation…’ has been stringent in its criticism of the BoD:

‘We reject engagement with this unrepresentative institution [the BoD], which prefers to repeat Israeli government lines rather than listening to Jewish communal concerns. The BoD takes the stances it does because of its politics, not because of its Jewishness.’

‘We Democracy ’ a grassroots community of British Jews and Israelis living in the UK ‘who care deeply about the future of Israel and about preserving its democracy’ say:

‘For us, the deputies’ letter was a welcome sign: we finally felt that mainstream communal voices are standing in solidarity with the majority of Israelis…’

Yachad, a ‘British Jewish organisation whose primary mission is to empower British Jews to support a political resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict has similarly endorsed the letter. From Yachad’s ‘X’:

‘Today FT published a letter signed by dozens of members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews…We’re proud that our representatives signed.’

Taking all the above, and add, for example, the campus protests in the UK, there is a strong sense that the balance of power within the UK Jewish public discourse about Israel, is changing. The BoD’s position is increasingly challenged.

The citadel has been breached – from within. I do not see how it can restore its authority, either among Jews, or the wider political and social environment it so assiduously seeks to influence and control.

Too little, too late?

This article has not attempted to analyse the core beliefs and ideologies underpinning many of the dissenters’ positions, be they the thirty-six dissenting Deputies, or those of other UK Israel-critical entities. I take at face value the views and commitments expressed. It’s for another article to discuss what has been called ‘liberal Zionism’, the stance I take to be prevalent – discussed in previous blogs – in the positions of the organisations featured in this piece.

To the degree that the organisational positions set out above suggest that an increasing proportion of UK Jews are awakening to the horrors that too many have passively supported – silence as endorsement – the fear is that this awakening has come at the eleventh hour.

Pray the heavens that we do not allow midnight to strike.