Raphi Bloom, Co-Chair of North West Friends of Israel, discusses what the organisation does and how it has stepped up since the Simchat Torah attacks.
While many of our readers will know Raphi Bloom as Director of Fundraising over at the Fed, that certainly isn’t the only community role he enjoys, as he’s also a member of the Management Board for the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester. But that’s not all! Raphi is also the Co-Chair of another organisation, founded to advocate for Israel, and that’s been keeping him busy since the atrocities of 7th October. North West Friends of Israel (NWFOI) was established by Raphi and several other individuals back in 2014, to oppose the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which was targeting a Jewish business in Manchester at the time: “We were formed during the conflict between Israel and Hamas then, Operation Protective Edge. As a result of the war, the pro-Palestinian BDS movement decided to target a shop in the heart of Manchester city centre called Kedem. It
was Jewish-owned and was selling Dead Sea products. The BDS movement decided to target the shop by demonstrating outside of it, intimidating customers, intimidating the staff and owners, and effectively trying to shut down the shop. “At the time, a number of us felt the established organisations of the Jewish community weren’t quick enough to act to protect the shop and to advocate for Israel. So we set up North West friends of Israel, and galvanised the Jewish community to come down to the shop on a daily basis and to counter demonstrate against the BDS protesters to protect the shop and advocate publicly for Israel.”
Counter-protesting isn’t the only activity which NWFOI took to protect Kedem. The organisation also engaged with the local authority and Greater Manchester Police, working very closely on an ongoing basis with them, to have the protesters removed under Section 14 of the Public Order Act, an endeavour which succeeded six weeks after they began protesting. NWFOI’s membership has drastically increased since its initial single figure membership: “We have about 3,000 members who support us on an on-going basis depending on their own availability and what we’re doing.
We are the largest pro-Israel grassroots organisation in the North West. We operate on three pillars, which is to advocate positively for Israel, to combat antisemitism, and to fight BDS. In 2014 and 2018 we also organised two national ‘Say No To Antisemitism’ rallies in Manchester.”
After a period of calm while tensions between Israel and Hamas eased, the attacks on 7th October have led to a resurgence of activity for NWFOI: “Since 2014, the battle to delegitimise Israel and the battle
to counter that, moved very much online. When 7th October happened, what we did online went into a much higher gear, whether that was working intensively with other UK and international advocacy groups and activists with whom we have close relationships to take on the media and amplify Israel’s case and message along with sharing information within our closed Facebook group so people have the tools they need to advocate, sharing information on our public Facebook page about events and how Israel was responding, and asking people to get involved in online campaigns. Just last week through an online campaign we made Etsy backtrack and reinstate the account of Manchester girl who was trying to raise money for Israeli victims of terror. We also updated and reshared an Advocacy Toolkit booklet I wrote which helps people of all ages answer the ten accusations often thrown at Israel. And we also organised a communal vigil a week after the attack in the centre of Manchester, which attracted 700 people to it. Since the initial vigil, we’ve organised a further three vigils, where we engaged with passersby and handed out leaflets to raise awareness about the hostages. We are proud of the fact that of all North West based pro-Israel organisations our history, track record and following means we can galvanise the community in the most dynamic and significant way. I am also contacted directly all the time by people asking how to respond to issues at work or online that relate to the delegitimisation of Israel or antisemitism.”
Readers may have even caught Raphi recently speaking on BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’ve done a lot of TV and radio work over the past eight or nine weeks, explaining Israel’s case and advocating for Israel, both nationally and in the North West. I’m always happy to appear in any forum. It doesn’t scare me personally, to appear and debate and advocate on Israel’s behalf.”