“This is truly a dark day for British Jews.

Today our Government has chosen to ignore the deep concerns expressed by so many of us.

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. These measures will succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target.

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.

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.”

Taking on the UK government is not something @chiefrabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis does lightly.

But as Britain moves to impose sanctions on Israel, at a time when British Jews are facing unprecedented hostility, he felt he could not remain silent.

The Chief Rabbi explains why he… pic.twitter.com/h6SBSeg2Su

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 9, 2026