The Flag of Europe
An unprecedented event took place in the Knesset plenum: the president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, addressed the Knesset this past Monday on the occasion of her first official visit outside of the countries of the European Union since her appointment to the post this past January, which was to Israel.
She opened her speech noting that "this is my first visit, but surely not the last. I wanted to come early, at the beginning of my tenure, and express a message of our desire to link together and to state the obligation of the European parliament to forge relations between us and to let you feel that the European Union and Israel are strong partners beyond history."
"It pains me to say that, today we are seeing antisemitism on the rise. We know that that is a warning sign for humanity. It matters to all of us," she told Israeli lawmakers. "I will not be ambiguous: To be antisemitic is to be anti-European."
"Every day, we still witness attacks on Jews, on synagogues," she said. "The European Parliament is committed to breaking the cycle, to combating antisemitism."
"Let me be clear: Europe will always back Israel's right to exist," she said to applause.
