What does it say when a letter signed by 36 members of the Board of Deputies elicits such a rancorous response?
We have reached a moment that asks us to re-examine how we hold the plurality of proudly Jewish voices in our community, especially when we don’t agree with them. These are the voices of those who passionately demand the return of the hostages and call for an end to war, alongside those who call out the actions of an increasingly unpopular Israeli Government and lament the killing of Palestinians and blocking of humanitarian aid to into Gaza.
The response of the leadership of the Board of Deputies to the Deputies’ letter isn’t the whole story.
Where we find ourselves, poignantly on the last day of Pesach, isn’t only about a letter written by people who love and care about Israel and have the same right to disagree with the actions of the Israeli government as those who blindingly support it. It’s about the crescendo of vitriol across social media platforms full of shouty contempt from people who won’t hear anything bad about Israel, shaming anyone whose view doesn’t accord with their ‘acceptable norm’. Some went as far as calling the signatories to the letter ‘Kappos’! Shameful. And in the silos of WhatsApp groups, some have been called “Jew Haters” by people they know and work with. Ouch! How did we forget that words matter?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 10, 2023. JINI via Xinhua ISRAEL-TEL AVIV-NETANYAHU-PRE
Support for Israel is not a choice of one narrative or one way, over another. Support for Israel and Israelis does not mean support for the Israeli government and the actions of its right-wing, extremist leadership. British Jews overwhelmingly do not support Benjamin Netanyahu – in the JPR research conducted in June 2024 he scored an 88% disapproval rating. Israelis don’t support him either. Polling conducted in mid-February 2025 by aChord showed that 70% of the general public in Israel feel that the Prime Minister should resign. We should also be clear that voicing concern for the people of Gaza, and the destruction, death and hunger that they are ‘living’ with, is in no way support for Hamas. It would be disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
Unity is not uniform. In this complex conundrum, there are many ways to show support for Israel and the people who live there.
The organisation that I chair in the UK, the New Israel Fund, has been advocating for civil and human rights, equality, religious tolerance, democracy and pluralism in Israel for over 40 years. In the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, NIF lead the emergency response to feed and house people from the kibbutzim and were one of the first funders of the crucial work of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. We also responded to the call of our Israeli colleagues, to help raise funds for WFK and the IRC to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza.
In the same week that the Deputies’ letter was published in the FT, a full page advertisement appeared in the UK in The Times (Thursday 17 April) that included a statement written by significant heads of the security establishment in Israel stating that “Netanyahu’s conduct poses a clear and immediate danger to Israel’s security and future as a Jewish-democratic state”. On the same page was a letter from members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum calling out the Israeli Government for prioritising military action in Gaza at great risk to the lives of the hostages. In Israel there was strong support from members of various IDF units and security bodies for the “Pilots’ Letter” which calls for a hostage deal even at the cost of ending the war. Naval reservist officers also wrote a letter to the Government and IDF calling for an end to the war.
Support for Israel has many faces.
Whilst we may not always agree with how our communal organisations, communities and groups of caring, committed Jews show their support for Israel, we must not ignore this moment. Our communal response to the publication of a letter signed by 36 Deputies who broke rank to courageously say what many of us are thinking (and to be fair have said publicly before with less consternation) must be to widen the tent, not bring down the flaps.
Irrespective of our views, this is not a moment to quieten our Jewish communal voice or to retreat. Rather we must continue the work of dedicated communal leaders and organisations to build allyship within the tent and beyond. We must listen deeply to one another and work together to bridge the communal divide that has shown itself to be wider than ever. Doing so enables us to show that our unity is in how we embrace our common ground and navigate our differences. Not for the sake of heaven, but for the sake of our community and Israel.
- Noeleen Cohen is the Chair of the New Israel Fund UK
