Following the Knesset vote to amend the Basic Law: The Judiciary, that cancels the use of reasonability when judges review governmental decisions, We Believe in Israel has issued the following statement:

"We Believe in Israel is deeply concerned that despite the increasing divisions and civil unrest over the Israeli Government’s proposed judicial reforms, negotiation and attempts to reach compromise failed.
 
We continue to applaud the Israeli people for conducting their protests non-violently, using all the methods available to citizens of a liberal democracy.
 
We welcome the fact that protests both in Israel and in the diaspora have used explicitly patriotic imagery, such as Israeli flags and singing of Hatikva, the national anthem, to show that one can be vehemently opposed to a particular government or policy of Israel whilst passionately loving and supporting the country and what it stands for. This reinforces everything that We Believe in Israel stands for.
 
We urge all parties in Israel to do their utmost to find a compromise way forward that reunites Israeli society expeditiously."

We Believe in Israel welcomes that after increasing divisions and civil unrest over the Israeli Government’s proposed judicial reforms a period of negotiation and attempts to reach compromise is taking place.

We congratulate President Herzog on his efforts to find a national compromise and on hosting the negotiations.

We applaud the Israeli people for conducting their protests non-violently, using all the methods available to citizens of a liberal democracy.

We welcome the fact that protests both in Israel and in the diaspora have used explicitly patriotic imagery, such as Israeli flags and singing of Hatikva, the national anthem, to show that one can be vehemently opposed to a particular government or policy of Israel whilst passionately loving and supporting the country and what it stands for. This reinforces everything that We Believe in Israel stands for.

We would now urge all political parties in Israel to do their utmost to find a compromise way forward that reunites Israeli society.

We Believe in Israel’s core values commit us as an organisation to support Israel as a democratic and Jewish state and that “We believe that the vibrancy of Israel’s democracy and internal debate is one of its sources of strength”. They also state that “We recognise and respect that some supporters of Israel will want to express legitimate criticism of specific Israeli policies.”

Our role is to bring together all supporters of Israel in the UK, across the political spectrum. As such we celebrate Israel as a state.

We approach the current debate within Israel about constitutional and judicial reform with those core values and objectives guiding our thinking.

We are proud that Israel is approaching its 75^th birthday having sustained a liberal, pluralistic, democratic political culture and the rule of law throughout its existence, despite incredible external pressures.

We do not support any moves which would erode Israel’s democratic norms or the pluralism and liberalism of Israeli society.  

We Believe in Israel (WBII) is a broad grassroots coalition of over 26,000 British supporters of Israel. Led by Director, Luke Akehurst, it campaigns against anti-Israel boycotts and delegitimisation of Israel and to ensure facts and a balanced picture of Israel are available to the British public and decision-makers.

WBII is recruiting a new Social Media Officer to focus on winning the social media battle against delegitimisation, antisemitic anti-Israel discourse and the boycott movement here in the UK – a gap in our capacity that we recognised we needed to plug during the 2021 Gaza conflict.

The post-holder will need to have experience of using the major social media platforms, ability to design infographics on Canva or a similar platform, and must support WBII’s core values (https://www.webelieveinisrael.org.uk/our_values).

We Believe in Israel (WBII) has announced it will be campaigning for music streaming service Spotify to remove extremist content which incites and promotes hatred, violence, and disinformation against Jews and Israelis. WBII’s research is ongoing, but the group has already identified dozens of instances of problematic material. WBII will be contacting Spotify directly in the coming days and ensuring that its supporters are kept up to date as this campaign develops.

WBII’s findings include the following:

• Rapper Lowkey’s “Long Live Palestine – Part 2” states that is time to have “globalised the Intifada”, that he had “studied the Torah and learnt by their own admission Israel's actions are not kosher in their own religion”, while contributing artist Hasan Salaam rapped “So whether it's the Mossad or the FBI policing you it's all one struggle till the final breath is leavin' you”
• His earlier “Long Live Palestine” echoes a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory with “Every coin is a bullet, if you're Marks and Spencer and when you're sipping Coca-Cola that's another pistol in the holster of the soulless soldiers. You say you know about the Zionist lobby but you put money in their pocket when you're buying their coffee”
• Rapper Ambassador MC (whose real name is Safeer Hussain)’s “Free Palestine” claims “what happened in America on 9/11 happens in Palestine, 24/7” and that “The Zionists and Jews are different types of people. The Jews ‘ain't bad, but the Zionists are evil. Even the Rabbis know the Zionists are crazy”. His 2021 rap “Free Palestine 2” states “Most [Palestinian prisoners] are killed brutally but some are set free”, and that “Israel wants every Palestine to bleed”
• Shadi al-Bourini and Qassem al-Najjar’s “Strike A Blow At Tel Aviv” says “Oh you settler, with your sidelocks, in your shelter you cower with fear” and “We don't want no truce or solution. All we want is to strike Tel Aviv”

Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe In Israel says: “Spotify has a responsibility to uphold its platform rules which quite clearly state that content promoting, threatening, or inciting violence is unacceptable. Our research has identified dozens of such breaches, and we expect timely action to be taken. Following the high levels of antisemitism experienced by British Jews during and after last May’s escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, it is remarkable that content directly inciting violence and hatred remains available. The presence of Lowkey’s music is particularly offensive. We view his comments about globalising the Intifada as a direct incitement of violence towards Jews and Israelis, while Hasan Salaam promotes commonly held and nefarious antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination.”

Rachel Blain, Campaigns Manager of We Believe In Israel says: “We will put pressure on Spotify to ensure that problematic content is removed in a timely fashion. We Believe In Israel’s research is an ongoing project and we will continue to highlight music and podcasts which breach the platform’s rules.”

Welcoming the Home Secretary’s announcement of a long-awaited extension of the UK’s proscription of the military wing of terror group Hamas to its political wing, Director of campaign group We Believe in Israel Luke Akehurst said:

“It is very important that this ridiculous and dangerous loophole is being closed. We have campaigned for many years for the entirety of the terrorist organisation Hamas to be banned in the UK so that it cannot propagandise and spread its antisemitic message of hatred of Israel and Jews here. Thousands of our grassroots supporters emailed their MPs to call for this action in recent months. We welcome the Government’s decision to listen to this concern and act on it. We call on all MPs of all parties to support this move.”

Earlier this year thousands of WBII activists were part of an email campaign to persuade the UK to not attend the UN’s Durban IV summit, as this series of events had been marred by antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel rhetoric.

Not only did this contribute to the UK being one of 34 countries to withdraw from the event, on Monday 11 October the UK called for a roll-call vote on a UN Human Right Council pro-Durban motion and prevented the text passing by consensus. 10 countries opposed the resolution: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine and the UK.

“Racism should be tackled in all its forms, and regrettably, for far too long, the UN has downplayed the scourge of antisemitism. This must end.” British diplomat Simon Manley told the UNHRC. He added “The UK is clear that we will not attend future iterations of the Durban Conference while concerns over antisemitism remain.”

Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe in Israel, said:

“We are delighted that the British Government is joining the USA, Canada and Australia in refusing to attend this September’s UN commemoration of the anniversary of the notorious Durban conference.

We want to thank the thousands of activists who emailed their MPs in the campaign we ran with Israel Britain Alliance to call for this decision.

Sadly, while the headline objective of the “Durban” series of conferences has been noble, they have been marred by becoming what the Jewish community internationally have described as a “hostile showcase for open antisemitism.”

The NGO Forum of the original Durban conference described Israel as a "racist, apartheid state" that was guilty of "racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing".

The conference secretary-general, Mary Robinson, said of the whole conference that "there was horrible antisemitism present, particularly in some of the NGO discussions. A number of people said they've never been so hurt or so harassed or been so blatantly faced with antisemitism."

Given the antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel discourse associated with the original conference it is commemorating, which is almost certain to reoccur at the commemoration, we are pleased that the UK is not giving credibility to this event.”

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UK grassroots campaign group We Believe in Israel (WBII) has condemned NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) for issuing a new report today that accuses Israel of “apartheid”, a crime against humanity.