Antony Lerman

In an op-ed for The New York Times after the 2014 Gaza Strip war, Lerman concluded that, “The only Zionism of any consequence today is xenophobic and exclusionary, a Jewish ethno-nationalism inspired by religious messianism. It is carrying out an open-ended project of national self-realization to be achieved through colonization and purification of the tribe.”

In his 2012 book, The Making and Unmaking of a Zionist, Lerman analyses his positions over five decades, from early Zionist idealism to criticism of Zionism. He is not an 'anti-Zionist'. He argues that Zionism is a "done deal", like the French Revolution, something that occurred in the past. He contends that self-identifying Zionists in the diaspora are complicit in supporting an unjust occupation, and argues Israel must abrogate the Law of Return, change its Jewish character, and become a binational state for Jews and Palestinians. The diaspora must choose between universal values and multiculturalism, and Jewish exclusivity.

Lerman served on the Runnymede Trust's Commission on Antisemitism in the early 1990s, and was appointed in 1998 to its Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain. He also sits on the advisory committee of the Imperial War Museum's Holocaust exhibition. He has contributed to The Guardian.

Lerman spent much of his early life within the Habonim, and trained to become a madrikh (youth leader) at the Jewish Agency's Jerusalem Institute for Foreign Leaders. He became Britain's first mazkir, (foreign youth leader) aged 22. He made aliyah to Israel in 1970, and stayed there until 1973. From 1979 to 2009, he worked for Jewish organisations, mainly as a researcher for the Institute of Jewish Affairs, but also worked as a director of the Rothchild's Hanadiv Charity. When Lerman became an outspoken supporter of a "one-state solution", his ties to mainstream Jewish organizations soured, while the IJPR leadership pursued its goals without his input or support until he came to a realization of the fact and resigned in 2009. Since then, Lerman has contributed to The Guardian' "Comment is Free" section to advocate for the disavowal of Zionism and the "one-state solution", which has earned him support on the pro-Palestinian camp but also resulted in him being ignored by the UK Jewish community and its leadership.

Antony Lerman (born 11 March 1946) is a British writer who specialises in the study of antisemitism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, multiculturalism, and the place of religion in society. From 2006 to early 2009, he was Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a think tank on issues affecting Jewish communities in Europe. From December 1999 to 2006, he was Chief Executive of the Hanadiv Charitable Foundation, renamed the Rothschild Foundation Europe in 2007. He is a founding member of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights, and a former editor of Patterns of Prejudice, a quarterly academic journal focusing on the sociology of race and ethnicity.