We need to root out racism from our community. Let’s start by not hosting Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.

Last year, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, many Jewish institutions took steps to tackle racism. In June 2020, Liberal Judaism launched An Action Group on Black Jews and Jews of Colour Inclusivity. The Board of Deputies launched a Commission on Racial Inclusivity, and Masorti Judaism recently hosted a webinar on what anti-racism work in the community should look like. Many other institutions have released similar statements.

While we applaud these valuable steps, they fly in the face of recent decisions by Liberal Judaism, Masorti Judaism and the Alliance of Jewish Women to host events with Tzipi Hotovely. This sends a sinister message, namely that our commitment to anti-racism does not extend to the treatment of Palestinians.

Tzipi Hotovely, the current Israeli Ambassador, is a racist. She has called Palestinians "thieves of history" and invited the fascist group Lehava to speak in the Knesset about their often violent campaigns against relationships between Jews and individuals from other faiths. During her first event in the British Jewish community as ambassador she called the Nakba an "Arab lie", drawing strong criticism from The Abraham Initiatives and Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner.  

Yet the British Jewish community continually welcomes her. In February 2021, the Alliance of Jewish Women invited her to their speaker series, ‘As a Jewish woman.’ On the April 8th, Liberal Judaism held 'An Evening with the Israeli Ambassador'. Still, more communities follow suit, with Senior Rabbi to Masorti Judaism Jonathan Wittenberg hosting her ‘in conversation’ this week. Though you can challenge Hotovely as much as you want, inviting her to speak grants her a stamp of respectability. Our uncritical platforms have helped Hotovely deflect criticism of her far-right racist views, describing herself as "welcomed by all denominations" when challenged on her politics during an interview with BBC Newsnight on April 20th.

Our community is crying out for moral leadership. Masorti Judaim's youth movement, Noam, called for the cancellation of Rabbi Wittenberg's conversation with the ambassador. Likewise, many from Liberal Judaism, including youth movement workers and leaders, opposed their own denomination hosting her. The Chair of Liberal Judaism's Black Jews and Jews of Colour Action Group resigned in protest. We need more leaders with such integrity to combat racism in our communities.

Hosting Tzipi Hotovely validates her virulent racism against Palestinians and, as we saw last night, it allows her to invoke our communities’ support in her defence. We cannot keep providing a stage for this bigotry.

Will you join us and call for communal organisations to no longer host Tzipi Hotovely?