The Australian television presenter Erin Molan has waded into the row over a letter criticising Israel signed by 36 members of the Board of Deputies and published by the FT by claiming:”It made me feel sick.”
Interviewing Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg for her YouTube channel, Molan, who is not Jewish herself, added:” I thought, ‘Oh my gosh’, you know, I’m trying to change people’s minds around the world… if Jews feel this way, what am I doing with my time?”
During the 18 minute long interview Molan, who has established herself as a staunch defender of Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza, also accused the letter writers, who are facing disciplinary action by the Board, of failing to mention “Hamas or October 7th” in their condemnation of Benjamin Netanayahu’s decision to end the ceasefire and re-start the war in Gaza.
At one stage, the Board’s president thanked the ex-Sky News Australia presenter for her comments adding his own wife had a similar impression of the letter published in the FT earlier this month.
But Jewish News understands the interview, posted online on Sunday, has once again raised concerns about the 36 Board members about public comments made by Rosenberg and other senior Board figures about the letter could prejudice the complaint process.
A source said of the president:”He has gone on record with at best strong and tangential criticism and at worst, untrue criticism of the signatories as representing themselves as the Board.”
Molan revealed that both she and Rosenberg are in a Whatsapp chat group in which threats were made to withdraw funding to the Board by those angered by the letter.
“I know there was a lot of that in the chat group that that we were in,” she said.
“Are people actually doing that? Or are they now given you’ve put something out fairly strongly starting to say, ‘Okay, we’re okay with this?’”
She added:”Like, where is this at? Because this organisation clearly does very important work. ”
36 Board memners write letter to FT opposing war in Gaza
Rosenberg made it clear during his interview with Molan that his wife had contacted him with some surprise when seeing for herself the letter in the FT.
He said she asked:”What have you guys done? And then she said, ‘Oh, wait, it’s not you’.
“But it took her a while to realise that. And she said, ‘I thought you might have mentioned this kind of radical change in position’.”
He added:”The letter was challenging because, at least by inference, and this is a matter for debate as to what the letter writers thought they were saying, who they were speaking on behalf of.
“But a lot of people, like you, Erin, and like my wife and other people heard it in a particular way, and it meant that the consensus position that we try and articulate that does take bits of what they say, … but was potentially misrepresented, advertently or inadvertently.
“And that’s a real challenge, because we work really, really hard to bring everyone together and find points of consensus.
“Not easy, but we think we’ve got a line that…. I speak to communities across the country, it’s my great privilege to visit synagogues in the most Conservative Orthodox traditions and in the most Liberal progressive traditions.
“And the line I advance on Israel … in almost all cases, people say, ‘yeah, fair enough’. And so suddenly it’s taken off in a particular direction.”
Erin Molan and Isaac Herzog
Molan said she did not have a problem with the fact that there are people within the Board who “do not share my viewpoint.” But she said she found it “mind-blowing” that the letter had apportioned “the entirety of blame onto the Government of Israel, as opposed to the terrorists who began this whole bloody thing. ”
She added of the letter writers:”My initial reaction as someone who’s been fairly heavily involved in this space was that they were representative of you, that your organisation had put that together, and that was where you stood.
“And it made me feel sick.”
At one stage she suggested the UK had been hit particularly hard by anti-Israel sentiment, and appeared to suggest she had watched Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily Thornberry in action last week.
“If those people, particularly that madam chair is representative of who you are dealing with, then, oh my goodness me, I don’t even, I don’t have the right words,” added Molan.
Asked to explain how the investigation into the 36 letter writers would now progress, with two executives already suspended from their roles, Rosenberg said:”There have been complaints made by deputies and members of the public about this.
“There is now a panel investigation into whether the 36 breached our code of conduct. And I want to be really clear, the breach would not be that they took a different view, that is completely not within the scope of breach.
“The question is did they represent their views as the views of the Board of Deputies to a third party, in this case, the world’s media?”
Rosenberg said the code of conduct process is independent. “There’s evidence being gathered on that, and everyone who was involved will have been made aware of the allegations, and we’ll have absolutely a chance to explain where they sit on that and whether they brought the Board of Deputies into disrepute,” he added.
“Again, these are two questions that are not for me to determine.
“We have a group of lawyers and others who are now investigating that question, and it should take about four weeks, because there’s a period of time that people have the ability to put in further complaints if they take a view on this.
“There are people that can put in that evidence, and it’s right that that should be considered independently. ”
Molan then insisted the letter had been “weaponised” by “organisations who have been horrific in this space since October 7” and who have “had an absolute field day.”
She added:” How do you reverse some of the damage that many think has been done by this?”
Gideon Moshe Sa’ar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, left with Phil Rosenberg, President, Board of Deputies of British Jews, right.
An article in The Times detailed how the row over the letter had led to a split within the Board.
It said the FT letter, predominantly signed by progressive Jewish representatives, marked the first collective show of opposition to Israel’s 18-month war with Hamas from members of the board.
It had warned that “Israel’s soul is being ripped out” by “extremists” in Netanyahu’s hardline administration. Signatories stressed they could not “turn a blind eye or remain silent at this renewed loss of life and livelihoods”.
It claimed the letter writers h privately pushed for the Board to release a statement against the resumption of hostilities, but said its leadership was unwilling to publicly criticise the Israeli government.
his prompted them to “break the taboo of organised mainstream Jewry explicitly condemning the Israeli government” by going public and citing their credentials as deputies.
Harriett Goldenberg, the vice-chairwoman of its international division, was suspended, while Nat Kunin voluntarily stepped back from his position as chair of the under-35 assembly.
Another deputy is subject to a complaints procedure for an alleged GDPR breach in connection with the letter.
