London is centre of anti-semitism, says Israeli minister

LONDON is the most anti-semitic place in the West, Israel’s diaspora minister said yesterday as he warned about the dangers of open immigration allowing extremism to build up.

Amichai Chikli, a controversial hardliner in Israel who is also in charge of anti-semitism affairs, said a toxic mix of far-left “wokeism” and Islamic extremism meant the capital city was no longer safe for Jews.

“The anti-semitism we see today in the West is the worst since the 1930s and it is because of a ‘red and green’ alliance – the combination of the radical Left and the radical Islam groups that work together,” he told a press conference of European journalists in Jerusalem.

He said London had become the worst example of this. “This is a centre of Western civilisation – the country of the Magna Carta and one of the leading democracies of the West with a rich legacy of freedom of speech, of human rights. But it seems what is happening now in Britain is that freedom of speech no longer exists,” he added.

The minister is a controversial figure in Israel and among diaspora Jews. In September 2023, a scheduled visit to the Jewish community centre JW3 was cancelled because so many British Jews protested.

He is also no stranger to attacking allies and in February he compared Lord Cameron to Neville Chamberlain for suggesting the UK may formally recognise Palestinian statehood.

During the sometimes fiery meeting with the Europe Israel Press Association, he also called Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, an “anti-semite” for previously saying he had “genuine doubts” about whether Israel was complying with international humanitarian law.

He also said Joe Biden had caved into “political pressure” by criticising the Israeli campaign in Gaza adding: “Our enemies are Europe’s enemies. Our enemies are the enemies of Western civilisation.”