Top UK Jewish group rejects visit by far-right Israeli MK
London (QNN)- The Board of Deputies (BoD), the community’s mainstream umbrella organization, has told far-right Israeli MK, Bezalel Smotrich, he is not welcome in the UK, and urged British Jews to “show him the door”.
“We reject his abominable views and the hatred ideology of Bezalel Smotrich and call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door,” the top UK Jewish body tweeted in Hebrew on Wednesday in an unprecedented intervention.
“Get back on the plane Bezalel and be remembered as a disgrace forever,” it added while tagging a number of prominent Israeli media outlets and journalists in a subsequent tweet.
אנו דוחים את דעותיו המתועבות ואת האידיאולוגיה אשר מעוררת שנאה של בצלאל סמוטריץ' וקוראים לכל חברי הקהילה היהודית הבריטית להראות לו את הדלת. תחזור למטוס בצלאל, ותהיה לדיראון עולם. אתה לא רצוי כאן.
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) February 9, 2022
In response, Smotrich tweeted: “British Jews: I love you. All of you.”
Smotrich is currently on a tour of the United Kingdom and France to rally opposition to the Israeli government’s plans to reform conversion to Judaism, citing assimilation concerns.
Bezalel Smotrich, who belongs to the controversial Religious Zionist Party, is a political ally of former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
He is a notorious racist, homophobe and Jewish ultra-nationalist.
Smotrich has a long history of making inflammatory and outlandish statements.
In April 2021, he said during remarks at a faction meeting that “Arabs are citizens of Israel, for now, at least. They have representatives, MKs, for now at least.”
During a heated exchange in the Knesset on October 13, 2021, he said that Palestinians exist in ‘Israel’ because Israel’s first prime minister and the architect of the Nakba, David Ben Gurion, did not “finish the job” of clearing out the territory of its indigenous populations.
Smotrich said to the Arab Knesset members, “I am not talking to you, anti-Zionists, terror supporters, enemies. You’re here by mistake because Ben Gurion didn’t finish the job and didn’t throw you out in 1948.”
He is also a staunch supporter of the construction of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian-owned lands.
Describing himself as a “proud homophobe”, he organised a “parade of beasts” to counter Gay Pride, marching donkeys and goats through the streets of occupied Jerusalem.
