Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has suggested that the UK is an “Islamic republic” in a new interview about the Iran War.
The Israeli leader made the remark during a podcast hosted by Avi Harush for Israel’s Army Radio.
During a discussion about Winston Churchill’s son, Randolph, and grandson, Winston Spencer Churchill, who spent time working as journalists, Netanyahu noted that the two men “came [to Israel] and covered the Six-Day War in a very positive way for us”.
He then remarked: “Try to find that now in Britain, which you could call the Islamic republic of Britain.”
Harush then asked whether “all of Europe isn’t already like that, no?”, to which Netanyahu responded: “Yes.”
Netanyahu also stated: “The first nuclear Islamic republic will be the Islamic republic of Britain. We’re making sure there won’t be another one in Iran”.
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is in fact the first formally Islamic nation to have a nuclear arsenal, which it acquired in the late 1990s.
However, the term “Islamic Republic of Britain” has been common within the British far-right for several years, with the implication that Muslim immigration has resulted in the country’s “Islamification”.
Netanyahu’s comments were condemned by the co-leaders of the UK’s Movement for Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy, who said they were “appalled” by the remarks.
“At a time when antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred and social division are causing real fear across our country, language of this kind is dangerous and irresponsible,” they wrote.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu does not speak for British Jews. His words do not represent us. British Jews are not made safer by rhetoric which denigrates British Muslims or portrays an entire community as a threat.
“Jewish leadership in this country must be clear in saying so. We have a responsibility to call out language which fuels prejudice and division.”
The comments come as relations between Israel and the UK have taken a turn for the worse in recent years.
Most recently, Prime Minister Andy Burnham appointed Ed Miliband, a prominent Israel critic, as his foreign secretary, and gave a government role to a socialist Labour MP who accused Israel of orchestrating the “deliberate extermination of the Palestinian people”.
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