David Cameron Says Britain Can Protect Israel by Staying in Europe
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron Image by getty images
— British Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain can only affect Europe’s approach to Israel by remaining in the European Union.
“When Europe is discussing its attitude to Israel, do you want Britain — Israel’s greatest friend — in there opposing boycotts, opposing the campaign for divestment and sanctions, or do you want us outside the room, powerless to affect the discussion that takes place?” Cameron said Monday night during an address to Jewish Care, a Jewish health and social services charity.
It is Cameron’s only scheduled address to a British Jewish audience before Thursday’s national referendum on Britain’s staying in or leaving the European Union. The London-based Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish British news website Jewish News reported on the address.
In December, Britain’s Parliament voted to put the decision on Brexit, as the UK’s withdrawal has come to be known, to a national vote.
Cameron, who is staunchly against Britain exiting the EU, also told the predominantly Jewish audience that Britain was better placed to “stop Iran getting nuclear weapons” from within the EU.
The prime minister referenced the pro-Brexit “Breaking Point” poster campaign by Independence Party head Nigel Farage that aims to appeal to those who are against staying in the European Union because Britain will be asked to absorb thousands more migrants from Arab countries.
“I’m proud that Britain is home to people who fled persecution – including those who fled the Nazis and from Russians pogroms,” Cameron said. “We should say to Farage and his campaign of division and intolerance ‘we don’t want your vision of Britain, we don’t want you’re selling, you’re not selling the kind of country we want for ourselves or our grandchildren – and I say we should vote decisively to reject it on Thursday.”
Cameron spoke about the murder of British lawmaker Jo Cox by a pro-Brexit activist who reportedly shouted “Britain first” before attacking her. Cox’s husband called on the British public to oppose hate in her memory.
“Wherever we find hatred, we should drive it out of our politics and drive it out of our communities,” Cameron said. “No one understands this better than our Jewish community.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
