London has become the most anti-Semitic city in the West thanks to a mix of the ‘radical Left and Islamic extremism’, a top Israeli official has declared.
Israel‘s diaspora minister Amichai Chikli, a notoriously hardline member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Likud party, said earlier this week the capital was no longer a safe place for Jews because of the erosion of free speech in Britain.
‘The anti-Semitism we see today in the West is the worst since the 1930s because of… the combination of the radical Left and the radical Islam groups that work together,’ he told journalists at a Europe Israel Press Association conference in Jerusalem.
‘This isn’t just a problem for the Jews but for the British people, when even the statue of Churchill needs its own security. Today in the UK, Jews are hiding their yarmulkes and their (stars of David). They know that if they speak Hebrew on the subway they might get hit.’
Chikli, who has developed a reputation for taking harsh stances against any criticism of Israel, went on to warn British officials of the dangers of radicalisation and suggested that immigration must be monitored more closely to prevent extremists from entering the UK.
‘If you think that anyone who is coming now from Algeria or Iraq or Syria can be part of Western liberal society just by crossing the border – you need to understand that it is not that simple…
‘What is happening in the mosques? In the schools? In the UK you have a very large Muslim population – most of them have nothing to do with this but a few people are being radicalised and that is going to have serious consequences.’
As part of Netanyahu’s far-right government, Chikli is ruthlessly opposed to any criticism of Israel’s actions in Palestine.
Last month he slammed British Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, comparing his suggestion that the UK could recognise Palestinian statehood to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler prior to the outbreak of World War II.
And just this week he declared Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez an anti-Semite after the politician voiced ‘genuine doubts’ over whether the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were complying with international law amid their brutal assaults in Gaza.
Chikli has even slammed Israel’s chief ally, the United States, after the Biden administration began pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, describing any attempt to negotiate with Hamas a ‘reprehensible step’.
‘Calling for a ceasefire now, which would ensure the survival of the Hamas terror organisation, as well as the absurd idea of recognising a Palestinian state as an outcome of October 7, is a strategic folly and, above all, an ethically reprehensible step,’ he declared.
It comes as the US circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an ‘immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages’ in the Gaza Strip – a significant signal of Washington’s official shift in attitude toward the war.
Washington has vetoed previous UN Security Council votes in favour of a ceasefire, objecting as recently as in February to the use of the term ‘immediate’ in a draft submitted by Algeria.
‘We have a resolution that we put forward right now that’s before the United Nations Security Council that does call for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages, and we hope very much that countries will support that,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told media in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
‘I think that would send a strong message, a strong signal.’
Blinken travelled to the region yesterday for his sixth diplomatic visit since the October 7 attacks as Washington attempts to broker a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with help from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
In an interview with the Al-Hadath network in Saudi Arabia, Blinken said the mediators worked with Israel to put a ‘strong proposal’ on the table. He said Hamas rejected it, but came back with other demands that the mediators are working on.
‘The gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,’ Blinken said.
But Israel remains determined to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can’t achieve its goal of ‘total victory’ against Hamas without going into Rafah.
Israel has approved military plans for its offensive. But with some 1.3 million Palestinians jammed into the city, Israel’s allies, including the US, have demanded greater care for civilians in its anticipated incursion.
Most of those Palestinians have been displaced by fighting in other parts of Gaza and are living in densely packed tent camps, overflowing UN-run shelters or packed apartments.
At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. A United Nations food agency warned that ‘famine is imminent’ in northern Gaza.
Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise October 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people.
Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.