Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis issued a forceful condemnation of the British government’s decision to impose sanctions targeting Jews living in Judea and Samaria, warning that the measures will strengthen extremists, deepen anti-Israel hostility and leave Jews increasingly vulnerable.

“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.”

Mirvis charged that rather than helping bring about peace, the government’s actions give credibility to hostile anti-Israel narratives and those who are fixated on attacking the Jewish state.

“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.”

The chief rabbi emphasized that the decision was particularly troubling because it came on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, as British Jews confront what he described as a mounting tide of extremism that has intensified in recent years.

“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.”

Mirvis warned that punitive measures directed at Israel are contributing to an atmosphere in which increasingly hostile rhetoric about the Jewish state is becoming normalized. The consequences, he said, extend beyond Israel itself and can encourage those who direct their hatred toward Jews in Britain and around the world.

“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.