The Board of Deputies and the Chief Rabbi – A legacy of racism and genocide

As Israel claims to be the voice of all Jews globally, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) claims to represent all Jews in the UK. The reality is that the BOD, a Zionist institution, ostensibly represents only around 40% of synagogues in the UK, and does not represent the thousands of secular Jewish people who maintain no ties to any religious establishment. Indeed, over the last three years of accelerated genocide in Palestine, the BOD has taken disciplinary action against those in its own ranks from those who could no longer toe the line on the BOD’s unconditional support for Israel. That is because it undermined one of the BOD’s objectives for decades - to manufacture consent for genocide in Palestine. 

In light of the BOD’s opposition to even the very limited sanctions recently imposed by the British government on settlements in the West Bank, IJAN has put together a history of the BOD’s uplifting and support for state violence, racist mass murder and Zionist atrocities.

In 1936 the BOD told Jews to stay home rather than confront Oswald Mosley’s fascist Black Shirts. They gave no support to the thousands of Jews who went to Spain to fight fascist Franco and Hitler’s Luftwaffe which bombed civilian populations for the first time in history. (See IJAN-UK’s recent statement on the BOD, Cable Street and the Spanish Civil War).

In 1982 the BOD supported “Israel’s” invasion of Lebanon and the leadership continued to support the invasion even in the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacres enabled by the IOF.  It was younger members of the BOD who opposed the massacres and the leadership forcing some response. 

In 2009, during the bombing of the civilian population in Gaza, Henry Grunwald, then president of the BOD, said, "The events of the past two weeks have not been a war on the people of Gaza but war on the people using them as human shields." This is a familiar theme used by those supporting mass murder and genocide. In this onslaught, some 1,400 Palestinians were killed. In contrast, the Council of Jewish Communities in Morocco, for instance, declared itself "in solidarity with the innocent victims who are suffering in Gaza," describing the residents of Gaza as "sitting targets... suffering under the bombs, the widespread destruction, the lack of food and water..." and added: "The pictures of Palestinian children torn from life are unbearable."

In 2014, the BOD again supported the bombing of the civilian population of Gaza by the IOF, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians including more than 500 children. Some 11,000 Palestinians were wounded. Mass murder is what “Israel” considers as its right to defend itself[i], and the BOD goes right along with it.

In the 2018 Great March of Return, Palestinians in Gaza demonstrated at the border with “Israel” against the total blockade of the territory, and were bombed and mowed down by “Israeli” planes and snipers . The BOD again returned to its familiar theme: “Alarming developments at Gaza border as Hamas once again uses its civilians - including children - as pawns.” B’Tselem reported that out of the 190 total murders of unarmed demonstrators by the IOF, 55 were children. (For more on the BOD response to the Palestinian Great March of Return in 2018, see the open letter to the BOD initiated by IJAN – UK and signed by some 75 Jewish people here.)

In 2023/24, the BOD defended the carpet bombing of civilians, residential areas, hospitals and educational institutions (all war crimes), opposed any ceasefire calls and echoed the British Government’s denunciation of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling that “Israel” was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. The BOD was similarly outraged by the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion that the occupation itself was illegal and all “Israeli” settlements on the West Bank should be removed.

In 2025, the Board continued its support for the “Israeli” onslaught, including the medieval siege cutting off all food, water and medical supplies into Gaza. But it could no longer be tolerated by some 36 of its delegates, who finally broke ranks and wrote to the Financial Times. They attacked the BOD, saying: “Silence is seen as support for policies and actions that run contrary to our Jewish values. Led by families of the hostages, hundreds of thousands of “Israelis” are demonstrating on the streets against the return to war by an “Israeli” government that has not prioritized the return of the hostages.” Rather than breaking their own silence on “Israel’s” brutal siege and return to mass murder, the BOD took disciplinary action including suspension in some cases against all the rebels.

Also in 2025, when Palestine Action was banned, the BOD ‘welcomed the decision’ stating that they were ‘targeting Jewish charities and communal sites, desecrating statues, and encouraging acts of violence and vandalism’. Their position comes alongside the arrests of 3700 people on terrorism charges in support of Pal Action, largely comprised of pensioners, clergy, elderly and disabled people.

A year ago, the BOD opposed the feeble symbolic action of the British Government in recognizing a Palestinian state. More recently, the BOD defended the Great Israeli Land Theft Event held at Edgware United Synagogue and described PYM, IJAN and JAZA’s protest to the atrocities as an attempt to ‘harass and intimidate members of the Jewish community’. They then screamed bloody murder over the imposition of sanctions against West Bank settlements, many of whose members are finally rightfully being described by Foreign Secretary Miliband and the establishment press as “terrorists.” BOD President Phil Rosenberg warned the government against taking “irreversible steps” over “Israeli” settlement activity, which could further damage British-Israeli relations and encourage a wider boycott of “Israel.”

The BOD remains unconcerned by the death of more than 73,000 Palestinians including more than 22,000 children (per conservative estimates). Their recent pronouncement that “Zionism is anti-racism” suggests colonialism is antiracist and absurd. The racism exemplified by the BOD’s support of an apartheid state actively perpetrating a genocide is perhaps only surpassed by that of Chief Rabbi Mirvis. 

Raised as a white South African under apartheid, he went to an apartheid West Bank settlement as a teenager and learned his trade there. He is an ardent supporter of Israel and all of the war crimes and crimes against humanity it proudly commits. In November 2023 he published an article in the Times about the Palestine protests, outrageously stating, “….it could not be clearer that, at the very least, the lines between those who wish only to advocate for the welfare of innocent Palestinians and those who support the brutal terrorism of Hamas have become badly blurred.” In January 2024, The Chief Rabbi condemned South Africa’s case for genocide before the ICJ as “a perverse moral inversion.” Also in January 2024, in reference to the war on Gaza, he said, “what Israel is doing is the most outstanding thing a decent responsible country can do” and referred to the IDF as “our heroic soldiers.” In September 2024, he said it “beggars belief” that the UK suspended 30 out of 350 arms licenses for “Israel” “at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival…” 

The BOD and Chief Rabbi’s support for the genocide at every turn is in line with their attempt to erase the long tradition of Jewish resistance to state-sponsored violence and racist mass murder. It is in this tradition that we stand as we organise in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and in joint struggle with all oppressed peoples.

In this moment of crisis for Israel, the Zionist project and its institutions globally, it is our responsibility to continue to expose these genocidal monsters who claim to speak in the name of all Jews, while they march in lockstep with the Zionist state committing genocide.

Never Again for Anyone!

[i] The UN Security Council and General Assembly maintain that Gaza remains an integral part of the territory occupied by Israel in 1967. It considers the status unchanged despite Israel's military and settler withdrawal from the strip in 2005, citing effective control over borders, airspace, coastline, and population registry. As an occupied territory the UN affirms “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”. There is no such right for a racist occupying power to “defend itself”.