An injustice or righting a wrong: British Jews debate sanctions move – BBC News
By Lucy Manning
From his home in the occupied West Bank settlement of Efrat, British-Israeli Rabbi Leo Dee wrote an open letter to Andy Burnham, accusing him of deciding "to single out Jewish Israelis like me for economic punishment".
The rabbi’s British-born wife Lucy, and their daughters Maia and Rina, were killed by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2023. They were shot dead as they drove through the Jordan Valley.
"I am enraged at the injustice of the situation," he told the BBC, claiming the government’s decision to place sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements, and not the Palestinian authority, was hypocritical. He argued that the main group who would face hardship as a result were the hundreds of Palestinians who were employed in them.
Settlements are illegal under international law, and there has been a rise in violence towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by settlers since the start of the Gaza war, triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Ed Miliband said the sanctions, announced after Israel opened up tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes, were necessary to safeguard the possibility of a two-state solution – and to ensure the UK "not only calls out injustice and suffering, but acts".
Rabbi Dee believes that apart from a small group of "hooligan settlers" who cannot be controlled and whom most people do not support, many others want a different outcome.
"Ninety-nine percent actually want to work closer with Palestinians" and have peaceful relations with them, he said, just as he did “before the 7 October attacks”.
Another British rabbi, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, took a different view while in the West Bank as the UK government made its announcement. He was visiting the family of Awdeh Hathaleen, a prominent Palestinian activist and English teacher killed by an Israeli settler last year.
Rabbi Wittenberg told the BBC he wanted to show that what was happening to Palestinians there mattered to him and his community.
He had "seen with my own eyes several times in the West Bank, the intimidation and threats towards Palestinians – and this needs to be called out," he said.
"It’s terrible for Israel and for Israel’s future, it’s not what Judaism teaches and it’s deeply wrong."
