On the 2nd of October, a man stabbed and killed one person and injured others at a synagogue where members of the Jewish community were celebrating Yom Kippur. This attack on the Jewish community is unjustifiable on any level, and I, as someone with no faith, unequivocally condemn it. A recent report commissioned by the British Board of Deputies of British Jews and done by Penny Mordaunt and Lord John Mann highlighted the rise in antisemitism. Much of the report lacks evidence-based support. In a BBC interview, Lord Mann stated that ordinary Jewish men and women are “going about their everyday life, particularly at work and suddenly being held to account for what’s happening in the Middle East in their workplace”. Clearly, what he said is right, though naïve. The report implies that trade unions have antisemitic tendencies and that primary school teachers are taught how to avoid passing on antisemitism and anti-Jewish tropes in their lessons, particularly focusing on Christian sources. It would be equally useful to get our primary school teachers to avoid passing on tropes about eugenics and slavery supported by Christian Churches in the not-too-distant past.
The British Board of Deputies of British Jews have refused to call the slaughter in Gaza a genocide. This, even after Omer Bartov, a former IDF soldier and an eminent scholar on the Holocaust and Genocide, has called Israel’s actions genocide. In addition, the Jewish human rights organisation B’Tselem called its recent report on Gaza “Our Genocide.” The Board have criticised the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian State, which they see as a reward for Hamas slaughter on October 7th. I do not know how they define a reward, where 62,000 Gazans have been culled, including 20,000 children, in addition to Gaza being turned into a lunar landscape. An open letter signed by 36 out of the 300 deputies condemned IDF actions and said, “What is happening is unbearable”, “but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out”. “We stand against the war.” We acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life.” These comments are most welcome, except that they are 18 months too late, and they still cannot use the word genocide. Six out of the 36 have been suspended and accused of “blame shifting”.
In September, the Board acknowledged the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the urgent need for more aid, and how the situation in Gaza was being exacerbated by extremist elements in the Israeli government. All sounds good, however, in the very same statement, they went on to say that “imbalanced presentation of the conflict risks exacerbating the disinformation that is fuelling the hostility against Diaspora Jewish communities.” The problem is that the Board have ignored that it is the Israeli government that is perpetrating much of the misinformation. This includes such things as, there is no man-made starvation, GHF is a legitimate humanitarian organisation, reporters are not being targeted, there are so-called safe areas, the beheading of babies on October 7th, denying that children are being assassinated while in food queues, that the IDF do not deliberately target civilians, that 2000lb bombs being dropped is precision bombing, denying blocking aid is a military strategy and the IDF are not decimating all social infrastructure and finally, Netanyahu and Gallant are not war criminals, seriously !!! What are your deputies reading or watching?
The Jewish Leadership Council wanted UNWRA defunded, wanted to undermine the UK’s government’s support for the ICC and on top of that, have shown little empathy for the slaughter going on in Gaza. They also condemned the UK government’s recognition of a Palestinian State, saying that recognition of a Palestinian State can only be seen as a reward from the UK for terrorism. They refuse to condemn the most right-wing government since the creation of Israel, even after Ehud Olmert called Netanyahu’s government, which includes Ben Gvir and Smotrich, far-right messianic Jews. He went on to say that “the act of collective punishment being perpetrated in Gaza and the West Bank undermines Israel’s moral foundation.” Gvir and Smotrich have started the process of delivering “from the river to the sea, not a Palestinian will be seen,” whatever the loss of innocent lives. Are these the people that you want as members of the” Chosen People Society”?Both the Boards of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have failed to unequivocally call out Israeli actions as genocide, and the crimes against humanity and war crimes being perpetrated by the current Israeli government, on a daily basis. They should call this out, not because they are Jews but because they have the moral courage and empathy as decent human beings. Maybe it would be worthwhile recalling the failure of Rezső Kasztner.
These groups believe they represent all Jewish voices, reinforced by the refusal of Starmer, Lammy and other spineless members of our government to call out Israeli actions as genocide and who have also been mealy-mouthed about the war crimes and crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the IDF in Gaza. In addition, Starmer and his crew have also failed to call out the “ethnic cleansing” being conducted by the “Settler” movement, who act with the blessing of Ben Gvir and the IDF. All of this, even after a report by the UN deemed that Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. Rachel Reeves, our incompetent Chancellor, unashamedly, at a Labour Friends of Israel reception, said, “In me you will always have a friend.” She never dared to say she is a critical friend. She seems to be devoid of a moral code on the issue of the genocide in Gaza, let alone her attempt to cut winter fuel allowance to our poorest pensioners.
As much as I condemn antisemitism, I condemn the failure of the Labour government to condemn in a meaningful way Israel’s actions and for not calling out the genocide in Gaza, out of fear of being labelled antisemitic or alienating Labour Friends of Israel. Furthermore, I also condemn Starmer, a Human Rights Lawyer, who seems to have lost his moral compass and leadership on the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. The Labour government’s recognition of the Palestinian State is a mere fig leaf for their failure to do anything to hold Israel to account for its genocidal actions. People like Luke Akehurst, a former lobbyist for Israel turned Labour MP, in an interview with Owen Jones about the slaughter in Gaza, literally and unashamedly talked through his ass. Watch the interview, pic.x.com/nPzzKxKJ4c, control and left double click. Simply put, the UK, as are many other democratic nations, complicit in genocide. My advice to my fellow Jewish citizens, as they say on Catchphrase, “Say what you see,” and if you cannot see genocide, well, there is nothing more for me to say other than what Martin Luther King Jnr said that “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind,” and “Hate destroys the hater.”
Finally, make up your own mind about whether Israel is committing genocide. See below the definition of genocide:
Article II of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:
- Killing: members of the group
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm: to members of the group
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
- Imposing measures: intended to prevent births within the group.
- Forcibly transferring children: from the group to another group
Suneil Sharma
3rd October 2025
The Gob 
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