Page 27 - TORCH Magazine - Issue #19

tree planting each year.
His stand with the Jewish people
extended to Israel. Sir David was a leading member of
Conservative Friends
of Israel, previously
Iranians to death for opposing the regime. In July 2021, speaking via video link
to the event, he proudly displayed two books showing over 100
serving as the honorary secretary, and he regularly met with Israel’s Ambassadors
“For evil to prevail, all it needs is for good people to remain silent."
signatures from current MPs and members of
the House of Lords
that he had helped to personally gather. Sir David said proudly that the statement they signed “rejects the brutal religious dictatorship in Iran and supports the
to the UK. Over the
years he made several
visits to the Jewish
state and counted it a
“great honour” to travel to Jerusalem and lay a wreath and plant a tree at Yad Vashem (Israel’s national Holocaust Museum).
Iranian resistance.”
Sir David was a true champion for
freedom in Iran, once saying, “One of the proudest things I have ever done in my political career is to support the National Council of Resistance of Iran which calls for the Iranian regime to be replaced with a safer and more democratic government.”
Tributes
Following his death, there has been an outpouring of love for Sir David Amess. The Holocaust Educational Trust said Sir David was a “long time supporter... joining us at every gathering and encouraging us in everything we did.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and Jewish Leadership Council both echoed the same sentiment, that Sir David had a “very strong and warm relationship with his local Jewish community.”
Rabbi Geoffrey Hyman of Southend Synagogue described Sir David as “a real mensch” (person of integrity) who was “always supportive and sympathetic to our members and causes.”
The National Council of Resistance of Iran held a vigil for Sir David, calling him a “champion of freedom” who “fought for democracy and human rights.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister, called Sir David, “a true friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish People.”
Justin Welby, said Sir David was a man “whose deep faith fuelled his sense of justice. We are richer for his life, and we are all the poorer for his untimely death.”
Sir David also signed “The Pledge for Israel” through which CUFI and other groups invited candidates to sign before the 2017 general election. The pledgers agreed to defend Israel’s right to exist, reject boycotts of Israel and support
the IHRA definition on anti-Semitism in parliament and more.
Iran
Sir David was also an advocate for freeing Iran from the grips of tyranny. He chaired the British Committee on Iran Freedom, regularly spoke out against the Iranian regime’s human rights violations and their funding of terror groups such
as Hamas and Hezbollah, and said Iran’s threats of “wiping the state of Israel out of existence is absolutely disgraceful.”
In 2018, Sir David led a UK delegation of parliamentarians to a Free Iran conference in Paris. Shamefully, the event was targeted by Iran, with Belgian police intercepting 550g of explosives, the same kind used in the Manchester Arena Bombing, which were transported by an Iranian diplomat. French officials later said the diplomat was running an Iranian state intelligence network and was acting on orders from Tehran.
Undeterred, Sir David continued his work against the regime. In fact, a few days before his murder, Sir David wrote an article on Iran and called for Iran’s President, Ibrahim Raisi, to be brought to justice for his part in the crime of sentencing 30,000
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