Ignorance is bliss: UK Jewish leaders cancel trip to West Bank

Noam Sheizaf By Noam Sheizaf January 26, 2011 | Edit

The only way to continue supporting Israeli policies these days is to enter a state of denial regarding the occupation and its consequences. This is exactly what leaders of the Jewish community in the UK decided to do.

Jewish Cronicle reports:

The Jewish Leadership Council has postponed a trip to meet Palestinian leaders in the West Bank following an angry reaction from community representatives.

Chairman Vivian Wineman had been due to travel to Ramallah next month with other council members including Sir Trevor Chinn and Rosalind Preston. They would have met Palestinian Authority officials and members of non-governmental organizations such as Oxfam and War on Want.

[…]

News of the trip was revealed at Sunday’s Board of Deputies meeting, drawing an overwhelmingly negative reaction from deputies.

The following day the JLC took the decision not to travel to Ramallah, saying it wanted to “take soundings from the community on the nature of the trip.”

Finding the fingerprints of the Israeli embassy all over this shouldn’t come as a surprise:

Another factor in the postponement was the breakdown of talks between the PA and the Israeli government. It is understood the Israel Embassy was also opposed to the trip, but a spokesman for the ambassador declined to comment.

Mr Wineman, who also serves as Board president, said he was taken aback by the reaction from the embassy and the deputies.

He said: “I spoke to my colleagues on the JLC but then I did take opinion from the embassy, and with other people knowledgeable on these issues, and I was surprised they had a very much more critical take on it. We are not going to do anything that would be seen as damaging the interests of the state of Israel. It is the last thing we would do.”

It seems that the people at JLC see themselves as nothing more than a propaganda office for the Israeli government. With the way things are going on in Israel recently, I believe this attitude deserves a second thought.

Noam Sheizaf

Noam Sheizaf is an independent journalist and editor. He was the founding executive director and editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine. Prior to joining +972, he worked for Tel Aviv’s Ha-ir local paper, Ynet, and the Maariv daily, where his last position was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. He is currently working on a number of documentary films.

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