How would you vote on this?
This Board of Deputies resolves not to engage on projects with any organisation which has expressed antisemitism or opposition to the right of the State of Israel to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people, or which has advocated a boycott of Israel, Israeli citizens, Israeli organisations or Israeli products.
This was the motion put before the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK’s primary representatives for the diverse Jewish communities of the UK.
If I really need to summarise 52 words it says don’t work on projects with Jew haters.
It failed to pass. Apparently the Board members feel they need to be able to proceed with projects alongside those who hate Jews or Israel and actively work with people who boycott the Jewish State.
From the opposition to this motion Board members believe they should continue working with odious organisations and individuals on the off chance that contact with nice, reasonable Jews will sway their views.
Right at the end, around 1hr 57m, Gary Mond, who brought the motion, specifically explains this motion is about “projects” and shouldn’t be seen as stopping talks with odious groups or individuals. It was always about spending money and entering into partnerships. Nevertheless it was struck down.
At the end Jonathan Arkush, however, does give a pledge that he personally (as the current leader of the Board) will not reach out to antisemites and won’t allow another joint project with something like Oxfam (which was a very contentious project from a couple of years ago). That’s great while he’s in charge, he is a principled and strong leader, who knows which out of these nay-sayers will be leading the Board in the future?
Update: Jonathan Hoffman in the UK was formerly a Deputy and led the fightback to the Oxfam debacle. He is also incensed by this vote and goes into some details on the specific comments of the Deputies who spoke.
