UK rabbis lead campaign calling for Gaza aid and hostage release

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner is leading a new campaign by British rabbis calling for immediate humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas.

The initiative, titled SOS, or “sending our selfies,” will see participating rabbis send photographs of themselves to Foreign Secretary David Lammy every Tuesday at 6pm until there is a change in the situation on the ground.

In a joint statement launching the campaign, Janner-Klausner, the former senior rabbi for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Warren Elf MBE of Southend and District Reform Synagogue condemned Israel’s blockade on aid entering Gaza and called for “an end to starvation” in the territory.

“We are calling for an end to starvation in Gaza, brought about by two months of blocking humanitarian aid by the Israeli army and government and to protest the abandoning of the hostages,” the pair said.

Citing Jewish scripture, they added: “This SOS call takes as its texts the psalms in English, Hebrew and Arabic “To save their souls from death, and to keep them alive in famine”, and the Jewish prayer for the release of captives.

“We call on the foreign secretary to convey to the British and Israeli governments that there are religious leaders here who reject the cruelty of the denial of food and humanitarian aid to Gaza as a tool of warfare: and who are distraught at the desertion of the hostages there. This blockade must be broken,” the rabbis went on.

Speaking to the JC ahead of the campaign’s launch, Janner-Klausner said the rabbis felt compelled to act as no aid has entered Gaza since March.

Palestinians rush to a food distribution kitchen in Gaza (Photo: Getty images)[Missing Credit]

“We should have done it before,” she said. “When have we as humans, not even Jews, been involved in knowing that other people are starved for months? There is starvation there.”

The former religious leader of the Reform movement described how her eldest child, who lives in Jerusalem, is in contact with friends in Gaza.

She went on: “Hearing from my eldest in Jerusalem, the texts that their friend sent them which I have seen... just reading it, I feel sickened in my body.

“They are being starved… There is food waiting to come in, and it is being blocked as a misuse of war. The [Israeli] government as an explicit policy is doing that [starvation].”

In reference to the humanitarian blockade, the senior rabbi questioned its purpose: “Looking at it strategically, what has been the advantage in the last more than two months, since food in Gaza has been deliberately withheld from the people in Gaza?

"What benefit – from the point of view of the declared strategy of war – has this brought the military or the government? I cannot see one.”

The Israeli government maintains that the blockade, as well as an expanded military operation in Gaza, places pressure on Hamas to release its remaining hostages and surrender – the two measures ministers claim will end the war and, consequently, the blockade.

The rabbis’ campaign follows a UN report which claimed that if the blockade and fighting continue, “the vast majority” in Gaza will not have access to food or water – and disease, malnutrition and death will spread.

Janner-Klausner emphasised her connection to Israel, where she lived for 14 years, stating: “I love Israel… It doesn’t have to be like this,” and described Hamas as “the worst enemy you could ever want – an enemy you wouldn’t wish on your enemy.”

However, she voiced concern over the wider impact of Israel’s actions in Gaza on British Jews, warning that the ongoing policy of blockade is damaging perceptions of the Jewish community in the UK.

Senior Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner[Missing Credit]

“I cannot impact Israeli policy,” she stated. “But when I think about what the long-term effects are for us as Jewish communities who in the majority support Israel [and] believe in two states, being tarnished with that putrid brush. What will it mean for Jews? What does it mean now?”

The campaign was initiated by Progressive rabbis and cantors, nine of whom signed on to help organise the effort, but Janner-Klausner said she hoped Orthodox leaders would also participate.

“The values that are behind this are not Progressive values. We [Jews] are commanded to release the hostages.”

She also stressed the campaign’s dual focus on both the humanitarian crisis and the hostages’ plight: “If we can enable the foreign secretary to know that Jews of all denominations and others who care about the Middle East are able to hold both wanting Gazans to eat and wanting the hostages to come home. It is not an either or.”

Referring to Israeli plans to allow limited aid into specific areas, she added: “They said they were going to give some humanitarian aid to some areas. How are you going to choose which areas you’re going to give humanitarian aid to?”

The proposed plan would see the IDF control corridors of land to the north and south of Rafah, which officials suggest will allow them to distribute aid in southern Gaza while keeping Hamas isolated in the northern half of the territory.

Recalling a trip to Gaza she went on with the United Nations in the late 1980s, Janner-Klausner described it then as “overpopulated deprivation,” which has since become “hell on earth.”

Last month, she was among dozens of religious leaders who signed a letter in the Financial Times calling on the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the strip.

The intervention followed a similar letter to the same newspaper the week before, when 36 deputies of the Board of Deputies criticised the war in Gaza, sparking a communal row about public criticism of the Israeli government and the wider role of deputies.