יום חיזוק הקשר עם יהדות התפוצות

קישורים לקטעים: מעבר ביניהם בחיצים למעלה ולמטה

אדוני היושב-ראש, ביום המיוחד שבו הכנסת מבטאת את הקשר שלה ליהדות התפוצות, אני רוצה להקדיש את הדברים שלי ליהדות אוסטרליה. לפני כחודש הייתי שם עם שר העלייה והקליטה, במקום שבו התרחש הפיגוע האיום ונורא שפקד אותנו.

I would like to deliver the message behalf of the Knesset members here to the Jewish community of Australia in this challenging moment, in this terrible terror attacked, the suffered and the loss of 15 citizens, Jewish citizens and heroes, and many many others wounded. We deliver to all of them נחמה. We deliver the Jewish phrase מן השמיים תנוחמו, and we pray for the recovery of all the wounded people in this attack.

The Jewish community of Australia consists of 120,000 Jews. It is an amazing community, I just visited there. They are unique in many ways – 70% of the Jews in Australia visited Israel; 50% of the Jews in Australia are studying in a Jewish elementary school – It costs them a lot.

70% of the Jews in Australia came and visited Israel. Although it takes two, three days to come and visit here, they did it. They are committed to Israel. They established more than seven youth movements, all of them Zionist youth movements. We were there, and we saw in every synagogue a flag of Israel, a blessing, blessing the state of Israel, a message to the soldiers of Israel. In every synagogue.

We were in their houses – in the Shahna family house, in Judkowitz family house, and Simon Morris house, and many others who hosted us, and they told us: The days in Australia are not easy any longer. We are suffering from Molotov bottles in synagogues. We are suffering from attacked in a restaurant, in a kosher restaurant. Our kids cannot go easily to study in a university. They said that Australia is not safe for Jews as it use to be, and the Government was not acting hard enough to protect them.

But at the same time, those people support us. If I calculate how many millions of dollars has been transferred from Australia to Israel through UJA, through The Jewish Agency, through Kakal and many others –the Jewish community of Australia probably sent billions of dollars to Israel to support us over the past 70 years, and even before establishing the state of Israel – through Kakal. They are sending thousands of people to visit here in delegations. Thousands kids of the Australia Jewish community served in the army. Dozens of them came to do reserve service during the war and spent time here during this war.

So the way they support us – It's clear, we take it for granted. It's not obvious. We need to go and support them back. There are only 120,000 isolated Jews. The only formal representative of the state of Israel visited there in 2017, and only lately the Minister of Aliyah visited there. The Chairman Benny Gantz said: Michael, you should go. Usually we don't do that on the time of "melia", but he said: Australia is important, so a month ago we went there.

I would like to call the Government of Israel: It is not enough to say "Thank you" to the Australian people. It is not enough to condole them. We need to see a few million dollars investment, announcement of the Government of Israel, for education, for the community, for security, for trading, for hosting, for expending the bridges between Israel and the Jewish community of Australia. We would like to see a Government design, not only speeches from the Government. Government design, with budget, with action, how to support the Jewish community of Australia. We have issues.

Chairman, last message.

You know, there is a project in Australia called Mahal.

There is a project called Mahal were kids are coming and spending time in the army. We have Tsabar – they do Aliyah – Mahal, the come on a tourist voucher. They go back, and when they visit Israel, they cannot stay here forever. They are not allowed. We need to change the law so anyone who served the army can stay here forever, whenever he wants, and no one can limit him stay. To support those families, The Minister of Security, we allocated three years ago a budget to work with those kids, to do networking. This money is ending at the end of 2025, and you need a new budget for next year. I will act on it. Thank you very much.