There comes a point when we have to stop trying to explain ourselves to people who have already decided that the problem is the Jew who refuses to leave.
Britain, France, and Canada have now moved to restrict trade in goods from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. They will call it policy. They will say it is about borders, settlements, and a two-state solution.
But for the Jewish people, there is a history here that cannot simply be brushed aside.
For centuries, European governments decided where Jews were allowed to live, what they were allowed to own, and when they had to leave. England expelled its Jews in 1290. France expelled Jews again and again.
Jewish property was confiscated, communities were uprooted, and Jews learned the hard way that acceptance could disappear the moment the political winds changed.
Then came the pogroms. Then came the Holocaust.
And after all of that, the Jewish people rebuilt sovereignty in our own land so that never again would another government have the final word on where a Jew may live or whether a Jew may defend his family.
That is why I find what is happening now so difficult to accept.
Jews told where they can and can't live
After generations of being told we could not live in their countries, Jews are now being told there are places in our own ancestral homeland where our homes and businesses make us unacceptable.
Britain, in particular, should understand why this strikes such a nerve.
In 1929, Britain was the governing power in the Land of Israel and responsible for security in Hebron. The Jewish community warned that danger was building. Violence had already begun. Jews asked the British authorities to protect them.
Then 67 Jews were murdered.
Families were slaughtered, yeshiva students were killed, synagogues were desecrated, and one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world was shattered.
Britain was not reading about it from London. Britain was governing the land. Britain controlled the security apparatus. Jews depended on it for protection, and that protection failed.
That history matters now, when Britain wants to use government power against Jewish life in the same part of the land. The method is different. It is not British police or a military order. It is trade restrictions, sanctions, and economic pressure.
But once again, London is deciding that Jewish presence in Hebron and the surrounding region is something to be acted against.
France should also look in the mirror. Jews in France are once again living with open antisemitism, threats, and fear. Britain has seen the same ugliness.
Since October 7, we have watched demonstrations across Western capitals where legitimate concern for Palestinian civilians too often crossed into glorification of Hamas, excuses for terrorism, and hatred directed at Israel simply because it is the Jewish state.
And then there is Canada, which is itself fighting over trade and tariffs with the United States and knows exactly what it means when economic access is used as political leverage.
Yet Ottawa has now decided to use that same weapon against Jewish communities thousands of miles away.
I am not saying every criticism of Israel is antisemitic. It is not. Israel is a democracy and its government can be criticized like any other government.
I am also not talking about Muslims as a group. Millions of Muslims reject terrorism and want nothing to do with Hamas.
Some of the most hopeful developments in the Middle East have come from Arabs and Jews choosing business, relationships, and opportunity over endless hatred.
But we should stop being afraid to say what we are seeing when extremists and Hamas sympathizers are allowed to set the terms of the conversation, and Western governments keep moving in their direction.
October 7 should have created one simple lesson: massacring Jews does not work.
Hamas terrorists entered Israeli communities, murdered families in their homes, burned houses, kidnapped civilians, and carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The answer from the free world should have been to make sure Hamas understood that terrorism brings only defeat, isolation, and consequences.
Instead, less than three years later, the pressure keeps finding its way back to the Jews.
Jews were massacred. Israel fought back. Now Jewish communities are being boycotted.
What exactly is Hamas supposed to learn from that? Commit atrocities, wait for the horror to fade, and eventually the international community will put the Jewish state back in the defendant’s chair.
That is not a path to peace. It teaches extremists that violence creates leverage.
There is also a hypocrisy here that is impossible to ignore. Western governments speak constantly about coexistence and improving Palestinian lives, yet these same policies threaten businesses where Palestinians earn their living.
Nobody in London, Paris, or Ottawa announced replacement jobs for those workers. Nobody offered to cover their salaries if factories lose business. The politicians get their statement. The worker still has to feed his family.
We have seen this movie before. When pressure helped push SodaStream out of its plant in Judea and Samaria, hundreds of Palestinians lost good jobs. The activists celebrated and moved on. The workers were the ones left asking what they had gained.
The Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce also fought Airbnb when it announced that it would remove listings from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
We said then that discrimination by geography could not be allowed to become normal. Florida acted, lawsuits followed, and Airbnb reversed course.
The deeper issue, though, is not Airbnb, SodaStream, or even this latest boycott. It is whether Jews are going to keep measuring our legitimacy by the approval of people who move the goalposts every time we meet the last demand.
For too long we have explained, apologized, and tried to prove that if we just say things the right way, show enough restraint, or make one more concession, people who hate us will finally accept us.
Jewish history should have cured us of that illusion.
Hebron should have cured us of it.
The whole purpose of Jewish sovereignty is that our future is not dependent on finding favor in the eyes of rulers, mobs, or movements that may decide tomorrow that the Jew has become inconvenient again.
That does not mean we stop caring about peace. It means we understand that peace is not built by rewarding people who massacre Jews or by punishing Jews for refusing to disappear.
If Britain truly wants to talk about Hebron, then let Britain also answer for Hebron.
There should be a serious historical and legal examination of what British authorities knew before the 1929 massacre, what warnings they received, why the Jewish community was not protected, and what responsibility Britain carried as the governing power.
Britain regularly demands accountability from Israel. It should be prepared to face accountability itself.
France and Canada should also think carefully about what they are joining. The Jewish people were expelled from Europe often enough.
We are not going to accept a modern version of the same thinking in which Jews are told that there is always one more place where Jewish life is politically unacceptable.
We do not need to hate anyone. We do not need to stop reaching out to people who genuinely want to live with us in peace.
But we do need to stop chasing approval from those who excuse Jewish murderers, sympathize with Hamas, and then demand that the Jewish victim prove his morality for defending himself.
Sometimes people show you their true colors. We should believe them.
The answer to October 7 cannot be another boycott of Jews. The answer to Palestinian unemployment cannot be destroying Palestinian jobs.
And after a thousand years of expulsions, restrictions, and bloodshed, the answer from Europe cannot once again be to tell Jews where they are allowed to live.
Britain must answer for Hebron. And Britain, France, and Canada should think very carefully about the message they are sending now.
The writer is the founder and CEO of Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce.