Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis: 'A dark day for British Jews'

UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis sharply criticized the British government's decision to impose sanctions targeting Jews living in Judea and Samaria, describing the move as 'a dark day for British Jews." 'This is truly a dark day for British Jews," Mirvis said. 'Today our Government has chosen to ignore the deep concerns expressed by so many of us." The Chief Rabbi accused the government of adopting measures that lend legitimacy to anti-Israel rhetoric rather than contributing to peace. 'The measures announced amount to little more than political flag bearing for mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric and those who harbour a dangerous obsession with the Jewish State," he said. 'These measures will succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target." Mirvis noted that the decision comes on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, at a time when British Jews are facing what he described as a growing wave of extremism. 'On the eve of Rosh Hashanah and at a time when our community is more vulnerable than ever to the wave of extremism that has been building over recent years, these sanctions do nothing to advance the cause of peace. Nor do they make anyone safer - quite the contrary." He warned that the sanctions could contribute to an increasingly hostile climate surrounding Israel and ultimately have consequences for Jewish communities both in Britain and elsewhere. 'Gesture politics of this kind feeds into an increasingly hostile discourse about Israel, and the cumulative effect of such punitive policies is to further embolden those, at home and abroad, who use hatred as a weapon against Jews," Mirvis concluded.