Tory leadership hopeful wants Star of David on every point of entry to UK

Two front-runners in the Conservative Party leadership race have attempted to ingratiate themselves with pro-Israel supporters by making statements critics have slammed as demand for a loyalty test on immigrants to support the apartheid state.

Robert Jenrick, speaking at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception, suggested displaying the Star of David at UK border entry points to show support for Israel. He said that “at every airport and point of entry to our great country there is the Star of David.” Jenrick, who last month called for jailing anyone who say “Allahu Akbar,” also pledged to move the British embassy to Jerusalem if he became Prime Minister, adding: “If the Foreign Office or the civil servants don’t want to do it, I will build it myself.”

In a similar vein, Kemi Badenoch, in an article for The Telegraph, raised concerns about the attitudes of immigrants towards Israel. “We cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not,” wrote Badenoch. “I am struck, for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel. That sentiment has no place here.”

When questioned about these comments by Trevor Phillips on Sky News if she meant Muslims, Badenoch clarified: “It is not all Muslim immigrants […] but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam; they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two,” she added.

Badenoch’s comments have been criticised as dog-whistle racism by some observers. Opposition to Israel is not exclusively a Muslim issue, as she seemed to suggest. Many non-Muslim figures, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope, have spoken out against Israel’s actions in recent weeks.

Pope Francis has described Israel’s assault on Lebanon as attacks that go “beyond morality”.   A week prior to Pope Francis’ condemnation, four prominent Church of England bishops in the UK issued a strongly worded letter accusing Israel of “acting as if it is above the law”.

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, publicly supported his fellow bishops’ intervention. “This is an urgent and important intervention by my fellow bishops and I support them in it,” said Welby. “The oppression, violence and discrimination against Palestinians in the West Bank, including Christians, must cease. The Israeli government is not above the law and must stop acting otherwise.”

These statements from both the Tory leadership candidates appear to be calculated attempts to ingratiate themselves with pro-Israel supporters within the Conservative Party membership, who will ultimately decide the next party leader and Prime Minister. However, they risk alienating a significant portion of the British public, including many who are critical of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians, regardless of their religious or ethnic background.

A YouGov poll found that 45 per cent of Brits between the ages of 18-24 support the Palestinians while only 7 per cent of the same cohort supported Israel. For all age groups, 31 per cent support the Palestinians and 17 per cent supported Israel.

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