Lobby group tells far-right Israeli parliamentarian to leave Britain

A pro-Israel lobby group announced yesterday that far-right Israeli parliamentarian Bezalel Smotrich is not welcome in Britain, calling him a “disgrace” and telling him to “get back on the plane”. Smotrich is the leader of the religious Zionist Party and is currently in London as part of a tour of Europe to garner support against some of the Israeli government’s religious reforms.

“We reject the abominable views and the hate-provoking ideology of Bezalel Smotrich,” tweeted the Board of Deputies of British Jews in Hebrew. “We call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door. Get back on the plane, Bezalel, and be remembered as a disgrace forever.”

The translation function doesn't quite convey the meaning of the last phrase. It's more like:

"Get back on the plane Bezalel and be remembered as a disgrace forever."

— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) February 9, 2022

In a second tweet, also in Hebrew, the community umbrella organisation said that it rejected the parliamentarian’s “disgusting ideology that promotes hatred.” In response, he tweeted: “British Jews: I love you. All of you.”

The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland joined the Board of Deputies in condemning Smotrich. “His far-right politics of hatred and division… have no place in our country nor in our community,” said the federation. This, it added, includes the targeting of the “LGBTQ+ community, Reform Jews or Arab Israelis.”

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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. He tweeted that he was in Britain “for a series of meetings with rabbis, community leaders and Jewish organisations.”

The Knesset member is known for his extremist views. In October, the 41-year-old described the presence of Palestinians in Israel as a “mistake” and that Palestinians exist in Israel because its founder, David Ben Gurion, did not “finish the job” of clearing the land of its indigenous people. Many have pointed to such remarks as an example of Israel’s inconsistent attitude towards the expulsion of Palestinians from 1948 onwards.