British Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis reached out to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday to express his profound concerns about the UK government’s newly hardened stance on Israel, according to UK Jewish News.
Mirvis’s unexpected intervention comes after the government’s decision to drop its challenge to the ICC’s pursuit of an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.
This move follows Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s confirmation that the suspension on funding for the Palestinian relief agency, UNWRA, is ending.
There is also speculation that the Labour government may soon announce a partial arms sales ban to Israel. Rabbi Mirvis’s letter highlights his anxiety about the shift in policy, echoing a joint statement from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council.
The statement criticized the change as a reversal of longstanding UK foreign policy and a divergence from international allies like the USA and Germany.
* Ynet contributed to this article.
