UPDATE:
41 minutes after my investigation into Labour peer and former IDF operative Jonathan Kestenbaum was published, his Wikipedia page was updated. However, questions remain:
Companies House lists Kestenbaum’s nationality as “British”, but the 1989 journal I uncovered describes him as a “young Israeli soldier”. The September 1988 article from the International edition of the Jerusalem Post says that Kestenbaum “settled in Israel” three years previously.
Was Kestenbaum’s participation in the Qabatiya curfew disclosed before his appointment to the House of Lords?
Labour Together’s board now includes Jonathan Kestenbaum. In November 2010, a single paragraph in the Jewish Chronicle described Kestenbaum as ‘an ex-IDF soldier [and] holder of the Israel army’s “outstanding soldier award”‘, but the claim has never been repeated since.
Kestenbaum is also noted as ‘a former mazkir of Bnei Akiva’ – the international Zionist youth movement. On the website of their UK branch, Bnei Akiva define their ideology as ‘a religious Zionist worldview, actively seeking to be involved in the development of Medinat Yisrael [the State of Israel].’
Most evidence of Jonathan Kestenbaum’s time in the IDF seemed to have been scrubbed from the internet. There had been no mention of his military service on his Wikipedia page until I published my research on X on 13 April, having previously jumped straight from his time at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to his return to the UK.
I did, however, find one source still available online: a 1989 article in the academic Journal of Palestine. The issue includes stories taken from the Israeli press, one of which is a series of ‘entries from the diary of a young Israeli soldier in the West Bank during the intifadah‘, which had been published in the September 24th 1988 international edition of the Jerusalem Post.
Jonathan Kestenbaum is described as an ‘IDF reservist’, and his diary excerpts are preceded by an introduction describing how what:
Kestenbaum … and his colleagues were not prepared for were the moral questions posed by service in the administered territories, although they were taught how to use clubs and tear gas.
Kestenbaum also describes ‘a policy of humiliation’ defined by ‘moments of arbitrary violence and excesses perpetrated by junior officers, enjoying unexpected power.’
‘Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation’
Kestenbaum was nominated to the House of Lords by the Labour Party’s leadership in 2010, following a seven-year stint as a director of the pro-Israeli lobby group BICOM.
BICOM were described in 2009 as “Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation”. At the time, the Guardian reported on BICOM’s approach:
Foreign reporters are bombarded with press releases and invitations to interview senior Israeli ministers and advisors at top London restaurants. Set up in 2001, it has regularly flown journalists to Tel Aviv.
BICOM was founded by billionaire Poju Zabludowicz. Zabludowicz inherited much of his wealth from his father Shlomo, ‘an arms dealer who made a fortune out of his close relations with the Israeli state.’ Former BICOM employees include Labour peer Ruth Smeeth and Luke Akehurst donor Lee Petar. Convicted fraudster Gerald Ronson and Wes Streeting donor David Menton have both funded the group.
The Israeli ambassadors
Labour Together’s Jonathan Kestenbaum has a cosy relationship with former Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor; leaked correspondence between the pair revealed an email with the subject line ‘From London with love’. By 2016, Kestenbaum was attempting to secure a job at oil company BP for Prosor, who he described as an ‘exceptional asset’.
A further set of leaked diaries revealed that in September 2024, Kestenbaum visited the residence of then Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely for brunch. Hotovely’s diaries also revealed meetings with Stuart Roden, another Labour Party donor. Last January, Roden gave Labour Together £100,000.
RIT Capital Partners
From 2008-22, Kestenbaum was Chief Operating Officer at RIT Capital Partners, formerly known as the Rothschild Investment Trust. RIT’s founder, Jacob Rothschild, was the chair of the family’s Israel-based Yad Hanadiv foundation from 1989 until his death in 2024.
The foundation was ‘instrumental’ in the construction of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) and Supreme Court buildings, and more recently entered into a partnership with the Israeli government to ‘renew’ the National Library of Israel.
Genie Energy
In 2010, an ‘entity connected to Jacob Rothschild’ purchased a 5% stake in Genie Energy. Jacob was also appointed to the Genie Strategic Advisory Board, alongside media baron Rupert Murdoch and former US vice-president and Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney.
In 2013, the Israeli state awarded Genie Energy exclusive gas and oil exploration rights in a 153-square mile area in the south of the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory illegally occupied by the Israeli state. At the time, an Israeli political analyst told the Financial Times:
This action is mostly political – it’s an attempt to deepen Israeli commitment to the occupied Golan Heights.
United Jewish Israel Appeal
Kestenbaum also previously served as chief executive of the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) charity. UJIA’s website declares ‘decades of experience in sending young Jews in the UK to Israel on rite of passage programmes’, which have previously included stays in illegal settlements. Trevor Chinn is president of the UJIA.
Labour Together may be attempting a rebrand in the post-McSweeney era, but their ties to the Israel lobby endure.
Published in the Canary.