British Economic Secretary to the Treasury and MP for Bromsgrove, Sajid Javid, is a self-made man. The son of a bus driver, he grew up attending British state schools and won a place to study economics and politics at Exeter University. 21 years ago, he became active in Britain’s Conservative Party. In 2010, Javid would be elected to the British Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party after working his way up the latter with his own hands. He is a secular Muslim who married a Christian woman and also happens to be a supporter of Israel.
As a member of the British Parliament, he recently addressed an audience of 700 people at the Conservative Friends of Israel business lunch in order to vocalize his support for the Jewish State. There, he stated, “If for some reason, I had to leave, with my young family, and I was told that I must go and live in the Middle East, where would I decide to go? […]There is only one place I could possibly go: Israel, the only nation in the Middle East that shares the same democratic values as Britain and the only nation in the Middle East where my family would feel the warm embrace of freedom and liberty.”
He continued, “In Britain, we are rightly very proud of our long history as a nation. But we are mere beginners compared to Israel, a nation that is governing itself in the same territory, under the same name, with the same religion, and the same language as it did 3,000 years ago. Now that’s what I call sustainability! Israel is a country about which almost everyone has a passionate opinion — an opinion which they’re not usually shy about sharing, especially when that opinion is based on total ignorance. If you want to have any chance of understanding the complexities of the Middle East, you can’t just read about Israel, you have to experience it.”
Javid was not shy about making these statements, despite the fact that many voices within the UK, especially within the British Muslim community, are radically opposed to the State of Israel. Both moderate Muslims who are not anti-Israel and Jews who attend British universities claim that anti-Israel intimidation is a major problem on British campuses. Not to mention that the British media is full of anti-Israel articles and the BDS movement is quite active in the UK. Nevertheless, in spite of all of this, Javid decided to be courageous and to speak out for the truth in regards to Israel.
This was not the first time that Javid has come out to support the Jewish people. This year, Javid also commemorated Holocaust victims on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day by signing the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment in the House of Commons. According to Javid, “This is an important opportunity to remember the victims of genocide and to pay tribute to the extraordinary men and women who, having survived the Holocaust, work to educate young people about what they endured through the Holocaust Educational Trust’s outreach program. […] It is vitally important that we remember and learn from the appalling events of the Holocaust and that we continue to challenge all forms of bigotry.”
By Rachel Avraham
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