Under fire from mainstream UK Jews, Smotrich says ‘small group’ wants to silence him

MK Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, on Thursday rejected an unusually harsh statement issued by a top UK Jewish body that said he was not welcome in Britain, calling the organization a “small group” trying to “silence” him.

While Smotrich was visiting Jewish communities in the UK on Wednesday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, UK Jewry’s mainstream umbrella organization, tweeted in Hebrew that it “rejects the abominable views and the hate-provoking ideology of Bezalel Smotrich.”

“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 tweet said.

Smotrich is a controversial figure in Israel. He has made offensive comments against Arabs and LGBT people, provoking public criticism time and again.

Speaking Thursday morning, Smotrich chalked the statement up to “internal political issues” and said it would not deter him from reaching out to the Jewish community in the UK.

“There are always disputes and ideological positions,” he told Kan public radio. “This was a small group that is trying to take control and to silence [other opinions].”

“I would gladly meet with them,” he added.

Reacting to the statement on Twitter on Wednesday, Smotrich wrote in English: “The entire UK Jewish community, I love you all!”

Smotrich said Thursday that what bothered him most were comments by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai of the center-left Labor party, who seemed to support the UK Board of Deputies’ statement.

“There is nothing for Smotrich in Britain. The community has made its position clear,” Shai tweeted on Wednesday evening.

“There is no place for racism anywhere,” he added, calling on Smotrich to “come home.”

Labor MK Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi who chairs the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, echoed Shai’s comments, saying Smotrich got what he deserved.

“There is nothing surprising about Diaspora Jews answering Smotrich in a language he understands. The man traveled to Britain in order to deepen the division and the tension between different factions and communities,” Kariv said.

“It is good that the organization that represents Britain’s Jews set aside traditional British manners in favor of Israeli chutzpah,” he added.

Coming to Smotrich’s defense on Thursday were the Likud party and other right-wing lawmakers.

Likud called the Jewish organization’s tweet “rude and disgraceful,” saying the organization was ignoring a large community of Jews in the UK who support Smotrich and his Religious Zionist party.

Defending his party leader, Religious Zionism MK Itamar Ben Gvir accused the Board of Deputies of being influenced by “leftist Reform” Jews and “forgetting what it means to be Jewish.”

“The organization does not represent the majority of Jews in the UK,” Ben Gvir tweeted Thursday morning.

“In any case, it is good that my friend Bezalel Smotrich, who loves the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, came to support the Jewish community [in the UK] and to explain his views,” he wrote.

Another Religious Zionism MK, Avi Maoz, claimed that the Board of Deputies’ reaction to Smotrich’s visit shows “how much hatred and division exist in large parts of the Jewish people sitting in exile, and among large parts of our nation in Zion, still experiencing the trauma of exile.”

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel, of the coalition’s right wing New Hope party, defended Smotrich as well.

“It is inappropriate to receive an Israeli member of Knesset who came to meet different Jewish communities in such a manner,” he said in a tweet.

“Even amid disputes, there is a [proper] way to express [disagreements],” Hendel chided, adding that “those who wish to influence Israeli politics belong in Israel.”

Smotrich is currently on a tour of Jewish communities in the UK and France to rally opposition against the government’s plan for major reforms in state-controlled Jewish religious services.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.