128 Orthodox Jewish men were not allowed to board their connecting flight to Budapest, Hungary in Frankfurt, Germany by the German commercial airline Lufthansa in May 2022. Only some of these passengers disregarded COVID-19 rules at the time, but they were all penalized as a group. For this incident, Lufthansa has agreed to pay $4 million in penalties.
A recent The Wall Street Journal’s editorial argues that UNIFIL, the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in operation since 1978, has been allowing Hezbollah to stockpile weapons and build up infrastructure in southern Lebanon, the very place UNIFIL is supposed to keep safe from terror groups.
The number of antisemitic incidents perpetrated by pro-Palestinian mobs in Western countries did not decrease on the anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack—in fact, the hatred only intensified. A video showing a pro-Israel demonstrator being assaulted by an enraged pro-Hamas mob is rapidly spreading across the internet. In contrast, Hungary remains an island of peace and security for the Jewish community, as evidenced by Monday’s commemorations.
The crackdown on antisemites has sparked controversy, with critics accusing the government of infringing on free speech and conflating legitimate political expression with antisemitism. Notably, the German police have been actively disrupting pro-Palestinian gatherings for some time now. For example, a recent conference in Berlin was shut down after authorities raised concerns that speakers might incite violence or express antisemitic sentiments.
The events of 7 October will forever be etched in Israel’s history as a day of immense tragedy and resilience. That day was a moment when the nation confronted the depths of brutality, but also discovered a strength it never knew it needed. Amid the profound loss and an escalating fight for the right to exist free from terror and fear, one message reverberates louder than ever: Israel will endure, and its people will not be broken.
The Hungarian government and Jewish communities, along with thousands of ordinary Hungarians, have shown full support of and solidarity with the State of Israel and the Jewish people in a number of ways since 7 October. We have listed the most important ones on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Hungary–Israel relations.
‘Mass immigration has changed the face of Europe. This is not to say that all immigrants are evil, but we would be blind to ignore the growing social, ethnic and religious tensions and security challenges that mass migration has brought to Europe in recent decades. As many have pointed out several times, one of the first victims of this is European Jewry.’
‘What has been going on at Columbia, how the professors are treating Jewish students, how they wouldn’t give you a letter of reference if you were a Zionist, all this has been normalized to the extent that it led to the recent encampments. So, when you normalize the narrative against Jews and Zionists so much that it is engrained in people that it’s okay to hate them, and there are no consequences, that’s when we end up seeing what happened a couple of months ago at the Ivy League colleges in America.’
‘France is organized in a way that prevents a patriotic, nationalist force from taking power. This is the essence of the French system. The media, the judiciary, public servants, business, entertainment, and so on: virtually all layers of society have been taken over by left-leaning representatives since the 1970s to such an extent that a change of direction would inevitably lead to violent clashes, especially given the openly anti-French rhetoric of large parts of NFP supporters. Palestinian flags were more numerous than French ones at many anti-RN protests.’
The Metrodome Group, active in the Budapest real estate market since 1996, is opening its first representative office in Israel to offer investment opportunities in the Hungarian capital to Israeli investors. Among the many positive arguments in favour of Budapest, one that stands out is that Hungary remains one of the safest countries for the Jewish community in Europe.