Redefining anti-Semitism

Martin Drummond is prompted to speak truth to power

by Martin Drummond 12th August 2016

Quakers have always had a certain sympathy for the Jews. Like them, we were once excluded from the professions, so went into banking and commerce, and we were particularly active in the Kindertransport. More recently, however, our relations with the Jewish establishment have become a little strained, owing to our support for the boycott of goods produced in illegal settlements in the West Bank. ‘Why have you turned against us?’ we are asked, to which the answer must surely be: ‘We were never for you, in that tribal sense. We are for peace, and truth, and justice.’