SIR MICK DAVIS BRANDS ISRAEL’S COALITION ‘CYNICS AND BIGOTS’

A prominent Diaspora leader has urged Jews to step out of the comfort zone and not selfcensor over Israel’s new government, saying “no one has a mandate to dismantle Israeli democracy”, writes Adam Decker.

Mining magnate Sir Mick Davis, a former chair of the Jewish Leadership Council and ex-chief executive of the Conservative Party, said the new Israeli government’s intentions were clear – “they do not respect the rule of law, but seek to overturn it.”

Davis, a former chairman of United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), is a known critic of Benjamin Netanyahu, who has just returned as Israeli prime minister at the head of a coalition that includes the far-right ‘Jewish Power’ party and strictlyOrthodox groups.

In a hard-hitting piece on page 25 of this week’s Jewish News, Davis – who voted in his first Israeli election in November – said the cur- rent Israeli government of “cynics, theocrats and bigots” was peddling a politics that “represents a betrayal of Jewish, Zionist and democratic values”.

Some of Netanyahu’s ministers wear their anti-Arab racial incitement charges with pride, leading Davis to ask whether the most fundamental aspects of a democracy are still being adhered to in Israel.