Along with the Israeli Defense Forces, perhaps no group of Israelis draws the attention of Israel’s critics as frequently as the so-called Jewish settlers.
In the same week that Tzeela Gez, a 30-year-old pregnant Israeli “settler” who was on her way to the hospital to deliver her fourth son, was murdered by a Palestinian Arab terrorist, the British government targeted a 79-year-old great-grandmother named Daniella Weiss.
On its official website, the United Kingdom announced: “Today’s measures include financial restrictions and travel bans, including on high-profile extremist settler leader Daniella Weiss.”
David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, stated: “The sanctioning of Daniella Weiss and others today demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation at the hands of extremist settlers.”
Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the sanctions “unjustified and regrettable.”
But that’s not the point here.
Ever since 1968, when a group of young Jewish families moved into a hotel in Hebron, there has been consistent opposition to Jews making homes in areas that Israel took control of after its victory in the Six-Day War in June 1967. From the very beginning, settlers have been a target for demonization.
Weiss is not the monster the British are depicting. A strictly Orthodox woman, she is the former mayor of the community of Kedumim.
No one can deny that Weiss has been a force in building, sustaining and protecting Jewish communities in the so-called West Bank. But if she were guilty of violent acts herself, why didn’t Lammy say so?
The answer is simple. This has nothing to do with Daniella Weiss—or the settlements. This is about Lammy and the Labour Party finding a way to express their opposition to Israel’s actions against Hamas.
How do we know this?
Because in the same press release, Hamish Falconer, Parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said as much. He said: “Today, I will set out to Ambassador Hotovely the government’s opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza and emphasize that the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible. I will urge Israel to halt settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank.”
Let’s pause and consider the British hypocrisy here.
The United Kingdom’s opposition to the settlement movement can be summarized as this: The British government believes that it has the moral authority to dictate where in their ancestral homeland Jewish families can and cannot live.
Can one imagine the outrage if Lammy, whose parents are from Guyana, decided to relocate there, only for the Australian government not only to criticize where a black man may live in Guyana but to launch a boycott in response?
This move by London—with its list of sanctioned Jews—echoes some of the darkest periods in recent Jewish history. It must be called out as both hateful and dangerous.
At a moment when Israel is fighting to rescue hostages who have been held for nearly 600 days, it is a moral disgrace for such an ally to attack Israel for how it is conducting itself.
American Jews should respond by canceling all planned summer trips to Britain until it reconsiders its position.
