Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has described an article in the Guardian listing its support for a Jewish national homeland as among “its worst errors of judgement” as “breathtakingly ill considered”.
Marie said: “That the Guardian lists its support for a Jewish national homeland in 1917 among its ‘worst errors of judgement’ in its 200 year history is breathtakingly ill-considered. In its eagerness to disassociate itself in any way from its early support for Zionism, the Guardian chooses not to focus on the simple fact that had such a national homeland existed even a decade earlier than 1948, many millions of Jews – our close relatives – murdered in the Holocaust might still be alive. Alongside a safe and secure Jewish State, the Board of Deputies supports the creation of a Palestinian State, something the Balfour declaration does not negate. The Guardian would be best advised to advocate for this as well rather than its current position, which seems to be to do everything it can to undermine the legitimacy of the world’s only Jewish state.”