London, 29 September 2026 – A refugee resettlement scheme must begin with a fundamental recognition: the people it is designed to help have been forced to flee from their homes and urgently need safety. Palestinian families continue to endure catastrophic violence, devastation and displacement in Gaza. Afghan women and girls face grave threats to their freedom and survival. Offering them a route to sanctuary is not an act of political charity, but a baseline moral and humanitarian responsibility.
The Jewish Leadership’s Council’s (JLC) response to the proposed scheme, centred on extremism, antisemitism, and the removal of refugees from Britain, is deeply troubling. Its statement questions whether new arrivals will receive “cultural orientation” addressing extremism and antisemitism, treating these as presumptive lessons specific to Palestinians and refugees. By raising the prospect of pre-emptive removal before they have even arrived, these demands invite the public to view vulnerable people seeking refuge as a collective security threat.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians condemns this statement as racist and Islamophobic. Antisemitism must be confronted wherever it occurs, but it must also not be weaponised as a pretext to subject entire groups of refugees to institutional suspicion. The stark contrast with the welcome rightly extended to Ukrainians fleeing war is impossible to ignore. Palestinians and Afghans deserve the same humanity and protection.
ICJP calls on the JLC to withdraw its statement and apologise. No human being should have to live through war and persecution only to find that sanctuary is conditional on overcoming racist and discriminatory assumptions about their identity.
Image: Alisdare Hickson via Flickr
