I have spent many years working to build understanding, trust, and solidarity between our faith communities across the country. I have been welcomed into the homes of Christian, Sikh, Humanist and Jewish friends. We have shared countless meals, laughed together at life’s absurdities, and cried together in moments of grief. As the former Chair of a national Jewish-Muslim organisation, I have spoken out time and again against antisemitism, because hatred against Jews is an affront to all of us and I have always recognised that, as people of Abrahamic faiths, our histories, traditions, and values are intertwined.
I have also, in the past, been criticised, and rightly so, for not speaking out loudly enough about the plight of Palestinians. That criticism has stayed with me. It has made me reflect on the dangers of selective empathy, and on how silence in the face of oppression allows injustice to deepen. It is from this place of connection, reflection and commitment to universal human dignity that I write these words.
Which is why the message on the poster, held up at the recent demonstration in London by prominent British Jews including the Chief Rabbi, reading “Are you clueless or are you heartless – over 670 days! 50 hostages are still being starved and tortured in Gaza”, has prompted me to write this piece. Frankly, the slogan is not only in bad taste but profoundly unjust in its framing.
When a public slogan wallops us with the suffering of 50 hostages, it ruthlessly concentrates sympathy on Israeli pain while entirely erasing the far greater, daily horrors endured by Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been killed and maimed, including over 15,000 children. Systematic starvation continues, alongside relentless bombardment and the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and basic infrastructure. Everything that points towards the total annihilation of an entire people.
It is not just selective empathy, it is a form of moral erasure that treats Palestinian lives as collateral damage while elevating Israeli suffering as human by default. Every life matters equally. If we are rightly mournful over 50 people, justice and morality demand that we mourn even more deeply for the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed. Anything less is an endorsement of injustice and tacit acceptance of genocide.
Even within Jewish communities, those who dare to amplify Palestinian suffering face severe consequences. In the UK, 36 Deputies, mainly from Reform, Liberal and Masorti communities, signed a Financial Times letter condemning Israel’s military actions in Gaza and highlighting the humanitarian crisis. Five of them were suspended for two years by the Board of Deputies, while others were reprimanded. This prompted an outcry from Progressive Rabbis who called these punishments “disproportionate” and damaging to diversity of opinion.
A week later, more than 25 Reform and Liberal Rabbis, including Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen, Rabbi Jackie Tabick, Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith and Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah, signed another public letter urging an end to the war, respect for international law and unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza. This too sparked institutional backlash.
And at the very demonstration where the aforementioned poster appeared, Rabbi Charlie Basinsky and Rabbi Josh Levy were physically removed from the stage for speaking about the suffering of Palestinians and saying that Palestinians, like Israelis, had a right to self-determination. That such treatment could be meted out to members of the clergy, for the simple act of expressing compassion for all victims, speaks volumes about the depth of the silencing taking place.
These are not nameless voices. Some are friends. Many are respected religious leaders willing to risk their reputations to stand for equal humanity. Their courage highlights an uncomfortable truth. Even within spaces committed to justice, Palestinian suffering is often minimised or erased.
And now, that silencing is being codified and criminalised. The UK government’s proscription of Palestine Action, effectively branding a direct-action protest group as “terrorist”, sends a chilling message. It says that non-violent resistance to state violence can be redefined as extremism. We are seeing pensioners, disabled campaigners and ordinary citizens arrested for nothing more than speaking out or protesting against the daily horrors inflicted on Palestinians. The justification offered is “security”, framed once again around the plight of 50 Israeli hostages that the Israeli government, in their efforts to genocide Palestinians, don’t actually seem to care about. Yet this framing obscures the disproportionate and ongoing suffering of millions of Palestinians who remain occupied, besieged and bombarded with no path to freedom.
This poster’s slogan is not just insensitive, it is emblematic of a deeper bias that dehumanises Palestinians while centring Israeli pain. It tilts public sympathy, weakens moral clarity and deepens division. True justice demands empathy for all civilians, unequivocally. We must mourn all victims, criticise all perpetrators and insist, loudly and persistently, that every human life carries the same worth.
We must also be honest about why this imbalance exists. For months, the majority of mainstream media and political leaders have amplified Israeli grief with front-page coverage and parliamentary speeches. Meanwhile, the slaughter and starvation of Palestinians, documented by UN agencies, aid organisations and journalists on the ground, has been treated as background noise. We are drip-fed the humanity of Israelis and starved of the humanity of Palestinians. This is not just bias. It is complicity.
If we want a future where Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and dignity, our compassion must be indivisible, our outrage consistent and our voices fearless in calling out injustice, no matter who commits it and no matter how politically costly it may be.
“Let no one, no person, no news organisation, no government gaslight you into thinking that basic human empathy is controversial” (Nicola Coughlan)
Soulful Spaces 