Prime Minister Rishi Sunak folded after accusations flew that Suella Braverman had undermined public confidence in the authorities.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired his Home Secretary Monday after coming under pressure due to accusations that she had undermined the police in stating recently that the authorities were treating pro-Hamas demonstrators too gently.
Suella Braverman is a staunch supporter of Israel and sharply condemned the Hamas invasion on October 7 in which its terrorists massacred 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, setting off the still-ongoing war with Israel. She is also very supportive of the British Jewish community, slamming the sharp rise of antisemitism that has been manifest ever since the Hamas attack.
She sharply criticized the weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have taken place on London streets, calling them “hate marches” and “mobs” that threaten the Jewish community.
In that vein, she publicly accused the police, who fall under the auspices of her ministry, of handling violent protestors with kid gloves, writing in The Times last week that there was “a perception that senior police officers play favorites when it comes to protesters.”
What angered members of her own Conservative party most was her comparison of the anti-Israel demonstrations to marches in Northern Ireland protesting British rule, with the unwritten subtext that both contributed to violence.
Members of both sides called her statements “inflammatory” and “offensive.”
Then, on Saturday, 300,000 came out to march for Hamas, and activists from the Right clashed with police who were trying to separate the two groups, leading to over 140 arrests.
Braverman was blamed by members of her own party as well as the Opposition, who said her words had “undermined public confidence” in the authorities.
After Sunak asked Braverman “to leave government” and she acquiesced, Foreign Minister James Cleverly was appointed in her place, and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron took Cleverly’s post.
Braverman is married to a Jewish man, Rael, who lived in Israel for a time and whom she says is “a very proud member of the Jewish community.”