Great Britain’s highly respected Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has resigned his position as patron of a charity that promotes understanding between religions, after it carried news of a pro-Palestinian petition in its latest newsletter.
The Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust (WPCT) newsletter, sent to around 70 supporters last week, contained a template for a letter to MEPs opposing the European Union’s recent renewal of a trade agreement with Israel relating to pharmaceutical products.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, the European Coordination of Associations and Committees for Palestine, a non-profit group which works with Palestinian NGOs, organised an ‘action alert’ including a petition and urged WPCT supporters to sign it and write to their MEPs.
The alert reportedly claimed that the Palestinian pharmaceutical industry is a “prisoner of the Israeli system”.
Jonathan Sacks (pictured) was a patron of the charity for over ten years. When asked why he had resigned from WPCT, a spokesman from the Chief Rabbi’s office said: “When the Chief Rabbi became patron of the Trust, its objectives were a commitment to world peace, and its aim to bring together people of diverse backgrounds in order to find common ground.
“Sadly in this instance, the Trust has failed to fulfil these objectives, and it is with regret that the Chief Rabbi can no longer remain a patron.”
But the executive secretary of WPCT, Win Burton, told the Chronicle that the newsletter was not a mouthpiece for any single agenda, but a platform for expression of various opinions with a view to stimulating debate.
“We would welcome something from our members which puts a different point of view,” she said.
WPCT’s website states that the charity’s aims are to “bring together people of different cultural, political and religious backgrounds; to address European and world issues, not just from a political and economic perspective but from the point of view of values and beliefs; and to enlighten public opinion and influence those who shape policy”.
The Chief Rabbi remains a patron of over 400 charities.
