Britain’s sanctions against Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have sparked public division among British rabbis, many framing reactions around fears of threats against Jews in Britain. Several rabbis supported the sanctions, citing violence from extremist settlers. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis condemned the move.

The sanctions, jointly announced with Canada and France, ban trade in settlement goods; a dozen countries supported them. Israel’s foreign minister called them “outrageous lies,” ordered the British Consulate in Jerusalem closed, and barred a dozen British lawmakers.

The sanctions come amid tensions in Britain, Israel, and the West Bank, and after recent antisemitic attacks. In October, two Jews died in Manchester during Yom Kippur. In March, arson destroyed ambulances in London. In April, two men were stabbed in a Jewish area of London. In July, Britain accused an arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of directing some attacks.

Rabbi Jeremy Gordon said, “There are very, very few people who would associate themselves with the extreme far right in Israel.”