Halt European funding of anti-Israel orgs., Chikli tells Hungarian counterpart

Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister met on Monday with a Hungarian minister and asked him to halt European funding to anti-Israel Palestinian organizations. Chikli met with the Hungarian churches, minorities and civil affairs minister Miklos Soltesz. 

Chikli requested that the Hungarian government helps in combating the European Union's assistance to anti-Israel Palestinian organizations and thanked the Hungarian government for its unwavering support for the State of Israel. Rabbi Shlomó Köves, Chief Rabbi of the Hungarian Jewish Association (EMIH) participated in the meeting and accompanied Soltesz during his visit. 

During the meeting, Chikli expressed gratitude to the Hungarian government and Jewish community for establishing Machne Chabad, a refugee camp that has provided aid to over a thousand Ukrainian Jews displaced by the war. The camp was established by Chabad Hungary and Ukraine, with support from the Hungarian government. 

Conversations between ministers

The ministers discussed efforts to combat antisemitism in Hungary and Europe. Soltesz informed Chikli of the constitutional changes made in Hungary over the past decade to better address antisemitism, which are carried out in collaboration with the Jewish community's organizations, led by the Action and Protection League (APL).

The ministers agreed that anti-Israel sentiments have become a new form of Antisemitism and require special treatment on an international level. Soltesz pledged the Hungarian government's continued support for Israel in all international forums and invited the Chikli to visit Hungary. 

Sixty-eight percent of online antisemitism originates in Palestinian or progressive pro-Palestinian circles – according to a new report on the state of antisemitism, by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, which was exposed by Minister Amichai Chikli during the cabinet meeting last week. Chikli said at the cabinet meeting that “antisemitism is changing the way it manifests and it is increasingly focusing on hatred towards the Jewish state and the denial of its right to exist.”

Chikli shared that most of the antisemitic discourse on social media, 68%, according to the comprehensive research carried out by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, “originates in Palestinian or in progressive pro-Palestinian circles.”

“The State of Israel has a duty to lead the fight against antisemitism and to act in order to expand the adoption of the IHRA definition [for antisemitism], in as many countries and institutions as possible," Chikli said.