Discord over Board peace plan
THE BOARD of Deputies is to launch a programme involving synagogues and churches to support “peace-making” between Israelis and Palestinians.
Invest in Peace, which has been in the pipeline for several months, is being developed with so far unnamed “church partners”.
The planned project came to light at Sunday’s meeting of the Board, where an attempt to lay down conditions for entering into joint programmes was overwhelmingly defeated.
Gary Mond, a deputy for JNF, moved a motion to block the Board from initiating projects with organisations which had expressed antisemitism, opposition to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state or support for boycotts of Israel.
He said that “by setting such red lines in stone we avoid a situation whereby a controversial project is entered into before the Board has had a chance to consider it”.
Mr Mond explained that he had been prompted to ensure no repetition of the Board’s joint project with the charity Oxfam from three years ago which was fiercely opposed by a minority of deputies. Its joint venture had caused “abject disillusionment” with the Board outside, he claimed.
Oxfam, although it does not back boycotts as such, opposes trade with Israeli settlements.
But Karen Newman, a deputy for Liberal Judaism and participant in the Oxfam programme, who opposed the resolution, said that “we have to be free to talk to people who don’t agree with us otherwise we are only talking to ourselves”.
The original seconder of the motion, Tal Ofer, a member of the Board’s executive, withdrew at the eleventh hour. Marie van der Zyl, who chairs the defence division, explained that Mr Ofer, who was not present on Sunday, had decided after consultation with deputies and former Board officers that the resolution would “not be helpful to the Board in the long term”.
Mr Mond was nevertheless under the impression that Invest for Peace had been dropped. “Thankfully, I gather that project isn’t proceeding,” he said on Sunday.
ButaBoardspokesmanthefollowing day confirmed that it was going ahead. It would, he said, “link local synagogues and churches to support positive peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians. It is something we have been developing with church partners. Over the coming months, we will be looking to engage more local synagogues and churches.”
The Board of Deputies has been accused of “double standards” for refusing to make public disciplinary action against its members.
Gabriel Webber, a member of its executive, said that “just as we want Labour to be transparent when it disciplines members, so should we. The Board is no different. Double standards do not help our cause.”
But, in response to a question from Mr Webber at Sunday’s meeting, Board president Jonathan Arkush said he believed most deputies would prefer that disciplinary proceedings remain confidential because “sometimes in the heat of the moment, things are said”