“I don’t think Jews have a place in France or in Belgium,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said on Tuesday.
“I already told the Jewish community in France to pack up and come to Israel. I don’t think they have a place in France. They are not being protected,” she said in response to a French journalist who asked whether French Jews should immigrate to Israel because of rising antisemitism in the country.
“The situation of Jews in France is horrible. Antisemitism has spread. It is not new, but it has reached extremely high levels,” said Haskel.
She noted that her mother is from Saint-Brice, a suburb north of Paris.
“My grandmother was attacked one year ago there by an Arab who kicked her, spit on her and called her ‘Dirty Jew,’” she said.
Speaking during a meeting in Jerusalem with a group of 24 European and American journalists on a press trip organized by the Europe Israel Press Association and the American Mideast Press Association, Haskel said things were even worse in Belgium.
“We have seen the decision of the Belgian government to reduce security at Jewish institutions and then restore it after they were attacked. Prosecuting Jewish rabbis for traditions that are thousands of years old and trying to find ways to drive out the Jews,” she added, referring to a recent decision to prosecute two mohels in Antwerp for alleged illegal circumcisions.
“Jews who cannot eat kosher meat, who cannot practice Jewish traditions, cannot live in a country. They have no place in France or in Belgium, unfortunately.”
Only when the Jews have fled France and Belgium, “and there won’t be an excuse anymore, will the French government or the Belgian government understand who will be targeted next and what disease has spread—a hatred toward our own values,” she continued.
“Antisemitism is a symptom of a much bigger disease. The disease is hatred of your own culture, values and traditions of freedom, liberty, women’s rights and freedom of religion. Once Jews disappear, we know who will be targeted next, and then Europe might wake up.”
This article was first published by the European Jewish Press.
