Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary enforces zero tolerance against anti-Semitism with every means possible and protects all of its citizens.
After talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest on Thursday, PM Orbán noted that they last met eight years ago and he last visited Israel in 2021. He said the world had gone through “huge changes”since then, with global security facing “serious threats”, as evidenced by the 2023 terrorist attack against Israel.
Hungary, PM Orbán said, had made it clear that it stands by Israel’s sovereignty, its right to self-defence and the security of the Israeli people, noting that it has represented this position on the world political stage ever since.
PM Orbán said Hungary in recent years had been “an island of freedom, the resolute guardian and standard-bearer of Judeo-Christian civilisation in Europe”. Hungary, he noted, is home to Europe’s third largest Jewish community, adding he was certain that Hungary was the safest place in Europe for Jewish people today.
He said anti-Semitism had reached “unprecedented levels” in western Europe over the past decade, adding that “Hamas flags have never been waved in Hungary and never will be.”
“In this country … there is zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, and that is something we enforce with every means possible,” the prime minister said. “We protect all of our citizens and devote special attention to groups that are highly vulnerable, and the Jewish community is now highly vulnerable everywhere in the world.”
