BOARD IN JERUSALEM ROW
THE BOARD of Deputies has been accused of ignoring the “political consequences” of publicly commenting on Israel after their latest Twitter message urged the Foreign Office to recognise “the simple truth” that Jerusalem is the country’s capital.
In a message on Sunday, the Board’s Twitter account responded to the announcement by Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison that his country now recognised West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and was starting to search for a suitable site for its embassy there.
The tweet read: “Great to see recognition of the simple truth of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital gaining pace. Thank you Australia!”
Yachad Director Hannah Weisfeld responded on Monday, saying she was surprised the Board was showing “such little thought about the political consequences.
“Suggesting this is about a ‘simple truth’ is the most simplistic statement you could possibly make about Jerusalem,” she wrote.
Leading human rights lawyer Adam Wagner agreed, tweeting the Board’s social media output was “all over the place on Israel-Palestine and has been for a while”.
He added: “Some of the stuff they tweet (and I don’t know who runs the account) is pretty dodgy. They should be much more cautious and measured.”
After responding to the Board’s statement, Ms Weisfeld was subjected to a vicious attack from the Twitter account of the right-wing Jewish group Likud Herut UK.
Backing the Board’s stance over Jerusalem, a tweet falsely accused Ms Weisfeld’s Yachad organisation of being “Iranian funded”. Supporting suggestions by other Twitter users that Yachad supporters were ashamed to be Jewish, the Likud Herut account tweeted: “They had a name for them in Germany.”
Mr Morrison last week said in a speech to the Sydney Institute: “We look forward to moving our embassy
They should be more cautious and measured’
to West Jerusalem when practical, in support of, and after the final status determination.”
But Mr Morrison said Australia would not move its embassy and instead open a “Trade and Defence Office” in West Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached with the Palestinians.
He said: “The UN Security Council has consistently endorsed a two-state solution, negotiated directly between Israel and the Palestinians, as the way in which ‘final status’ issues are to be resolved.
The Board has been quick to use its Twitter account to join the debate on the Middle East in recent months.
On December 7, the Board tweeted: “Thank you to the UK and all the 87 countries who voted to condemn the terror group Hamas for its indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel. This was an unprecedented show of unity in the UN against terror.”