THE Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, has said of Israel that “criticism of policies of the government of the day” is “not necessarily anti-Semitic”, and that “I care about Palestinians.”
Asked by the Church Times about comments made by the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, earlier in June, in which she said that to be pro-Palestinian was not to be anti-Semitic (News, 3 June), Sir Ephraim said that it was “very important for Palestinians to live a life of dignity”.
He continued, however: “Unfortunately, if you take the situation in Gaza, the vast majority of instances where Palestinians have suffered has been as a result of their leadership, who have placed them directly in the path of being hurt and of being killed — that is the reality of the situation.”
The Chief Rabbi was speaking at a Religion Media Centre conference in Westminster on Monday, where he was read a passage from Bishop Treweek’s blog, in which she had written: “Why can we not condemn the actions of this government of Israel regarding Palestine and at the same time condemn anti-Semitism in the UK? The two things are entirely different and should not be conflated or cancel each other out. Jews in the UK are not responsible for the actions and decisions of a foreign government, and we need to be extremely careful not to create false dichotomies.”
Also during the discussion, Sir Ephraim accused the BBC of instances of anti-Semitism. Asked by the BBC’s former home editor, Mark Easton, who was chairing the discussion, whether he thought that the BBC was “institutionally anti-Semitic”, the Chief Rabbi said: “There are some people who are far more familiar with the BBC than me who claim that that is the case. Unfortunately, there have been so many instances of anti-Semitism within the BBC.”
In his keynote lecture, “How the media should challenge hate crime and promote social cohesion”, he said: “The media has an enormous role, I believe, in strengthening social cohesion in Britain today. The media must surely highlight everything which we, as British citizens, have in common. But part of the problem is many of us fail to recognise what our true British values are; so we’ve still got quite a lot of work to do, and the media can help us in this regard to identify what it means to be British, and then to show how all of us share these true British values.”
He continued: “But even that will not be enough: we can’t only focus on all that which brings us together to create strong social cohesion, which will withstand all challenges. We need, as well, to recognise differences and to be open about that, and to debate those differences with respect. It is in that way that we can genuinely move forward.”