Attorney General Richard Hermer has described a situation whereby it is not possible to “love being in Israel but be deeply concerned about the plight of Palestinians” as being “absolutely not the world I want to be in”.
In a revealing conversation with Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, his former teacher in the RSY Netzer Reform Jewish youth movement, at the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference, Britain’s most senior lawyer showed his deep understanding of both Jewish liturgy and values.
Revealing he had visited Israel both in his youth, and in more recent years as a senior human rights lawyer, and as a member of Keir Starmer’s government on more occasions than he could count, Hermer spoke of the current horrific situation of the hostages captured by Hamas along with the horror of the conditions faced by those living in Gaza throughout the on-going war with Israel.
Hermer said his frustration was that “somehow you have to pick one-side or the other. Or that you can’t love being in Israel, but can’t be deeply concerned about the plight of Palestinians.”
The KC continued:”That is absolutely not the world I want to be in.”
Appearing on stage at the JW3 community centre in north London, Hermer said he was able, in his role as Attorney General, to explain the government’s position, but not disclose what advice he may have given on a particular decision.
But in a wider discussion about his views around the current conflict Hermer spoke of seeing matters through “the prism of our Jewish values” and “tikun” and “about taking other themes I have picked up through my Jewish experience.”
But Hermer also expressed his commitment to the concept of “Rosh Gadol” or “taking leadership”. He noted that currently in the world there were countless people, “amplified by social media” who took “extreme positions not trying to look at things through the eyes of others, occasionally sympathising, but never empathising, and not trying to find common ground”.
He added:”Now is the time for people to be taking leadership positions, all of us to be taking leadership positions, to try and show that actually it does not need to be like this”.
Asked about the Labour government’s decision to announce a suspension of 30 UK arms export licenses to Israel, Hermer continued to insist it was “purely a legal decision – the decision that this government made.”
He stressed the decision was governed by domestic law, and that a legal test was made.
Hermer rejected claims made by another lawyer in the audience that legal decisions were inevitably also the result of “interpretation”.
Asked about the problems faced by Jewish students on campuses in the aftermath of October 7, Hermer said he was “absolutely” concerned, not least because he is “the father of a child on a campus who is involved in Jewish life.”
He added there was a role for both the university authorities and the government in respect of this issue.
Addressing concerns amongst some in the community about the impact of pro-Palestine demos on Jewish life, Hermer said this was an “important issue” but one which involved the balancing of the right to protest with the complaints made by a significant section of the community.
“I want to go back to the kind of grown up approach we want to take as a government,” said Hemer. “There is a perception amongst some, but not all of the Jewish community that laws on public protest are not providing the protections.
“I think what we want to do as government is try to understand what the competing tensions are. Undoubtedly when it comes to public protest and we want to carefully understand whether the law at present has got this balance right. We want to contrast that with what the additional laws might be. What the risks and benefits are and reach a reasoned and careful position.”
He added:”The principle that members of the Jewish community must feel safe on the street, that we must make people feel safe, is how we achieve that through legislation and public policy.”
“We can either deal with that in kind of short headline points, or we can lean into the complexity,” added Hermer. “I’m always for the more take the route that’s complicated, because you tend to get better answers in the end.”
