Samuel Hayek, outside a destroyed house in Be’eri, January 2023 (Photo: Oria Siman Tov)
The war against Hamas in Gaza and the subsequent wave of antisemitism around the world has demonstrated “very clearly” that Israel must rely only on itself and that Diaspora Jews must start a serious debate about the future of their communities, Samuel Hayek, the Israeli-born British chairman of JNF-UK, told The Algemeiner during a visit to Israel.
Hayek, who was visiting some of the southern Israeli communities that were massacred on October 7, said that the existence of Jewish life in the diaspora was of “tremendous strategic importance” to Israel.
But pointing to the UK in particular, Hayek said the Jewish community must begin addressing “hard questions” about its future.
“The most important thing is to create a forum that debates different aspects on Jewish life in the UK,” he said. “We need to ask ourselves, do we want to continue to live in fear?”
“Do we want to live in a place where we need to hide Jewish symbols? Do we want to where people drive through neighborhoods shouting for the destruction of Israel and calling for the rape and murder of Jews with megaphone?” he said, referencing a 2021 antisemitic incident.
Antisemitism in the UK has soared since the Oct. 7 atrocities. Protests occurring most weekends in London have drawn vast crowds, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands, where people have been arrested for either chanting or displaying antisemitic slogans, or for expressing support for Hamas, proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK.
“I urge everyone to consider the consequences of what we’ve seen in the streets of London, the magnitude of which took nearly everyone by surprise,” he said.
“If we don’t want to live this kind of life, and we don’t see prospects getting better, we need to make a decision about what kind of steps to take,” Hayek went on. He underscored that his views were expressed not in his capacity as the leader of JNF-UK, but rather as a “very worried Jew.”
Hayek praised the British government for its “tremendous support” of Israel in the wake of the attacks, but called on it to do more to combat antisemitism at home.
UK authorities “must take further steps to tighten the laws against antisemitism and enforce them – they must amend some of the laws that allow antisemites to have a free rein that calls for the destruction of Israel, and in effect, the destruction of the Jewish people,” he said.
During his visit to Israel, Hayek also toured Karmei Gat, a newly established neighborhood in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, where more that 130 apartments have been given to the survivors of Nir Oz, a kibbutz that saw more than a quarter of its members either murdered or taken hostage on Oct. 7.
Thirteen of those apartments were donated by JNF-UK to residents of Nir Oz, including to the family of Sagui Dekel-Chen, who has worked for the JNF-UK for the past decade and who was taken as a hostage to Gaza where he still remains.
In a letter to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on behalf of JNF-UK, Hayek urged the UK to campaign for Dekel-Chen, who he described as a “kind and gentle man,” and take responsibility for the “welfare of a British charity’s employees.”
The UK must pressure all involved entities, Hayek said, including the United Nations and Hamas interlocutors such as the Qatari government, to secure the release of Dekel-Chen and the rest of the 136 hostages held in Gaza.
Until then, he called on Sunak’s government to pressure the International Committee of the Red Cross and other relevant bodies to convey signs of life of the hostages and to enable them to “communicate with their families and be kept safely away from military conflict zones.”
“Hostages like Sagui Dekel-Chen, who has devoted his life to helping others, are
not pawns to be used in the machinations of Hamas terrorists but are human
beings who deserve their life and liberty,” Hayek wrote.
Dekel-Chen’s wife, Avital, moved into the JNF-UK apartment last week with her three daughters, the youngest of whom was born two months after her father’s abduction. His oldest daughter, Gali, who is 6, was photographed this week sobbing while she called out for her father.
