Hacking into
Mobile phones
And extracting
Personal informationFrom them
Started with
The Palestinians
And has reached
Deep into
Israeli society.
Israeli soldiers
Raided Nablus
And extra-judicially executed
Three Palestinians.
The Knesset approved
A law that
Prevents Arab citizens
Of Israel from marrying
Whomever they wish
And living in this country
With their chosen spouse.
Two Palestinian workers
Plunged to their death
From unsafe scaffolding
On a high rise
Being built by
A greedy contractor
On the rubble of a slum
Whose residents were
Forcibly evicted.
And in the same week:
The leadership of
British Jewry,
Which hitherto granted
Unconditional support
To all of Israel’s actions,
Informed a former minister
In the Israeli government
That racists of his ilk
Were personae non gratae.
Top British Jewry group tells Smotrich to leave Europe, calls him ‘disgrace’In a tweet, in Hebrew, the Board of Deputies said that it rejected Smotrich’s “disgusting ideology that promotes hatred.”By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPublished: FEBRUARY 9, 2022 21:50
The Board of Deputies, the umbrella organization that oversees British Jewry, launched an unprecedented attack against MK Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday, calling him a “disgrace” and asking him to never visit the United Kingdom again.
Smotrich, leader of the far-right National Religious Party, who was the Minister of Transportation in the Netanyahu Government until less than a year ago, is currently in London as part of a tour through Europe to garner support against some of the government’s religious reforms.
“Get back on the plane Bezalel and be remembered as a disgrace forever,” the Board of Deputies said in a tweet.Latest articles from Jpost
In a second tweet, in Hebrew, the board said that it rejected Smotrich’s “disgusting ideology that promotes hatred.”
In response, Smotrich tweeted: “British Jews: I love you. All of you.”
The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, an umbrella organization for the Zionist movement in the UK, joined the Board of Deputies in condemning Smotrich, saying his “far-right politics of hatred and division… have no place in our country nor in our community,” including targeting the “LGBTQ+ community, Reform Jews or Arab Israelis.”
Earlier in the day, Smotrich said that he was flying to Europe out of concern for the assimilation of Jews that would be made worse by the conversion reform being advanced in the Knesset by the current Israeli government.
“Conversion is not just an Israeli domestic issue but is of concern to Jews from around the world,” he said. “Therefore any changes need to be done in conversation with Diaspora Jews.”
“Smotrich has nothing to look for in Britain, the community there has already made its voice heard,” wrote Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai in response to the incident. “Racism has no place anywhere. Come home.
Smotrich is known for his extremist views. Last April, he said that Muslims who do not recognize that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people will not continue to reside in the land. He made the comment just hours before Israel bowed its head to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“I heard Smotrich complain that “progressives” have taken over the Jewish community in the United Kingdom,” tweeted Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz.
“No Bezalel, it is your party’s racism and Kahanism that are disgusting the Jewish community in the UK, which have always pushed for tolerance, equality and justice.”Recommended by
A few years earlier, he said that his wife refused to give birth alongside an Arab mother due to “mental gaps” between Arabs and Jews.