EIPA UK Media Advisor Tovi Borins Hosts Successful Roundtable on Iranian Regime’s Terror Network and IRGC Infiltration Featuring Expert Insights from Kasra Aarabi and Beni Sabti

We welcome the decision by the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum to revoke the asylum status of Mohanad Alkhatib, a Palestinian from Gaza, following clear evidence of his public glorification of the October 7 attacks against Israel and his continued activity as a propagandist and apologist for Hamas.

Following evidence presented by the Israeli Embassy in Athens to the Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, H.E. Athanasios Plevris, the Ministry determined that Mohanad Alkhatib poses a threat to public order and to the Jewish community in particular. As a result, the asylum status granted to him in March 2025 has been revoked.

Videos circulating online show him openly rejoicing during the events of 7 October, while present in the border area between Israel and Gaza, and expressing praise for the Hamas massacre. His social media profiles also feature photographs in which he poses alongside senior Hamas figures, including former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, prior to his assassination.

In the period following 7 October, his online activity continued to glorify Hamas. He notably paid tribute to a confirmed Hamas member, Hassan Eslaieh, describing him as a close friend and “companion since the beginning of the war”. Hassan Eslaieh was an employee of Hamas-affiliated Al Quds TV and worked closely with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Even after arriving in Europe, he continued to disseminate extremist propaganda. On 23 June 2025, he published a message praising an Iranian strike “towards the American base”, referring to Al Udeid Air Base, writing: “May God protect our people in Qatar and may God guide Iran’s aim towards the American base.”

European Jewish Association Director for EU Relations, Ruth Isaac Daskalopoulou, stated;
“We thank the Greek Minister of Migration, H.E. Athanasios Plevris, and the Governor of the Asylum Service, Mr. Marios Kaleas, for their strong leadership and swift action in revoking the asylum status of Mohanad Alkhatib, who poses a serious threat to the community and public. We also thank Prime Minister Mitsotakis for his government’s for their zero tolerance towards incitement and for taking the concerns  of the Jewish community seriously. We thank the Israeli Embassy in Athens for their work.”

Alkhatib is currently present in Belgium, where he has been questioned by the authorities regarding his activities. His subsequent application for asylum in Belgium has been denied, and he has lodged an appeal against that decision.

Regarding the situation in Belgium, we commend the Belgian authorities for denying Alkhatib’s asylum application and for investigating the serious concerns raised by his public conduct and online activity. However, where an individual is found to pose a threat to public order and community safety, investigation alone is not sufficient. Belgium should now take the necessary steps to ensure that Alkhatib is removed from Belgian territory in accordance with the law.

“There are more Jews in Europe who think that there will be no more Jewish community here in a decade than those who think that there is still hope,” declared Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association, writes Yossi Lempkowicz.
“I am not saying that in ten years you will not be able to see Jewish people in Europe but I am very worried about the possibility to have Jewish presence in ten years from now,” he added as he addressed 160 ministers, parliamentarians and diplomats from across Europe who gathered for two days in Krakow, Poland, to discuss ways to increase Holocaust education and remembrance, fight against antisemitism and develop tools to combat hate speech and incitement in the age of social networks.
The gathering included also a tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps where a candle lighting ceremony and wreath laying were held in the presence of Rabbi Meir Lau, former chief Rabbi of Israel and President of the Council of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

Mehdi Bensaid, Roberta Metsola, European Parliament Vice-President, Hungarian Minister of Science and Education Zoltan Maruzsa, Minister of Education of Rhineland-Palatinate Stefanie Hubig, British Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi, as well as the Speakers of the Parliaments of Slovenia and Montenegro.
The conference took place on the 83^rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night of Broken Glass, when on 9 November 1938 the Nazis started the anti-Jewish pogroms by  killing Jews, burning 1400 synagogues and destroying shops owned by Jews across Germany and Austria.
“Europe is fighting anti-Semitism, but it is not winning yet. If this upward trend continues, more and more Jews will seek sanctuary in Israel rather than stay in a continent that cannot learn the lessons and cataclysmic mistakes of its past. We are not yet in the state of Judenfrei but, unfortunately we are approaching it,’’  Rabbi Margolin emphasized.
He noted that Jews who seek to eat according to the customs of their religion cannot do so in certain countries because of laws banning kosher slaughter. And in some cities on the continent Jews cannot walk safely in their traditional clothes.
“Education, he said, is the most effective vaccine in combatting the world’s oldest and most virulent virus.”
Addressing the symposium in a video from Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett said: “In the Middle Ages Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries Jews were reviled because of their race, and today Jews are attacked because of their Nation State, Israel.”
“It is worrying that there needs to be a conference about Anti-Semitism in Auschwitz so soon after the Holocaust,” the Israeli premier said, adding that “so long as Israel remains strong, Jewish people around the world will be strong.”
British Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi stated that: “The Holocaust was a failure for humanity and justice. The worst event in history. Nothing can erase the pain. I can feel the pain because my whole family has run away from Saddam Hussein’s rule. As Kurds, we had to escape. We fled when I was 7 years old from Iraq to the UK.”

The symposium in Krakow was followed by a visit of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps where a candle light ceremony and wreath laying took place.

He added: “I understand the important role of UK teachers in Holocaust education. Learning about history is something we sanctify in the UK. Due to the corona, virtual visits to Auschwitz increased. We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and racism. Anti-hate education is our top priority in the UK. I urge universities to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism,” he said in a reference to antisemitism  on campuses.
German Minister of Education of the Rhineland-Palatinate State, Stefanie Hubig  said: “I work hard to preserve the memory of the Holocaust in schools. We work to bring teachers to visit memorial sites and promote Jewish education in schools. This is all important because, unfortunately, there are still reasons why we must continue to remember.”
In a message from Rabat, Moroccan Minister of Culture and Youth, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, stressed that this conference is taking place at a time when more and more radical ideologies promoting anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia are flourishing. “As long as the danger of radicalism hovers over the world, we all have a duty to remind and teach our younger generation in Morocco and around the world about the dark chapter of the Holocaust in human history.”
Kálmán Szalai, secretary of the European Action and Protection League (APL) identified education as an important means of reducing anti-Semitic prejudice and emphasized that “the knowledge passed on to new generations can fundamentally influence the choice of values in adulthood”.
A recent survey by the APL showed the persistence of anti-Jewish prejudices in the population of several countries in Europe.

83 years after Kristallnacht, Jewish leader warns: Europe can become ‘Judenfrei’ in 10 years

(Brussels 1st October 2021) Belgian Constitutional Court decision to uphold effective ban on Kosher slaughter is an opportunity for other European Countries to stand fully behind their Jewish Communities and protect this central tenet of faith and practice.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin adds that European countries must not fall into the trap of being ‘two faced: solidly protecting us from antisemitism on one side, whilst making it impossible for Jews to practice their faith by legislating against us on the other”.
The Belgian constitutional court on Thursday upheld a decision by the European Court of Justice banning religious slaughter without pre-stunning, thereby also upholding a similar decision by the Belgian Walloon and Flemish governments.
In a statement this morning, Rabbi Menachem Margolin – Chairman of the Brussels based European Jewish Association, a pro-Jewish advocacy organising representing hundreds of communities across the continent – lamented the move but said it provided an opportunity for European countries to show their support to Jews:
“The Belgian Constitutional Court have shamefully upheld a decision that is openly hostile to a fundamental pillar of Jewish practice.
“What gets to the Jewish Communities the most is the two-faced approach of some countries towards Jewish Communities. On the one side they are solidly supportive when it comes to the fight against antisemitism, on the other they have no difficulty in effectively legislating Jewish faith and practice out of existence.
“Worse still these countries are blissfully ignorant of this massive contradiction and its catastrophic effects on Jews across Europe. This decision, if replicated, is a real threat to Jewish life across Europe. Every bit as threatening as rising antisemitism, and in a sense even worse as it directly targets the very tenets of our beliefs. Now is the time for European Countries to stand behind their Jewish Communities and leave Belgium isolated and an outlier of how not to treat Jews”.
 

European Jewish Association (EJA) Initiates Legal Action Against Bob Vylan Following His Ancienne Belgique Performance
The European Jewish Association (EJA) has initiated legal proceedings following the 2 December performance of Bob Vylan at Ancienne Belgique, during which the artist led the crowd in chants of “Death to the IDF” and “Everybody hates the police,” while displaying a Samidoun-branded t-shirt — an organisation officially classified as terror-linked in several countries and undergoing formal designation procedures as a terrorist organisation in several additional countries where its activities have already been banned.
The investigating judge of the Brussels Court of First Instance today received the complaint filed by Belgian attorney Christophe Boeraeve and EJA legal counsel Adv. Shlomo Dahan, and authorised the opening of an investigation into Vylan’s performance for the following offences:
* Incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence;
* Dissemination of ideas based on racial hatred; assistance to a group promoting discrimination;
* Public provocation to commit a terrorist offence;
* Glorification of terrorism;
* Participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation;
* Provocation to commit offences against public authorities.
In Israel, the law requires every citizen to serve in the army, and therefore calls for the death of IDF soldiers are, by definition, understood as directed at every Israeli and every Jew.
The fact that thousands of Belgian citizens were incited and roused to call for the death of the overwhelming majority of Israelis, while hurling insults at the Belgian police, reflects a profound moral failure and a security threat that Belgian authorities must treat with utmost seriousness.
As Boeraeve and Dahan explain:
“Criticise Israeli policy as you wish. But leading thousands to call for the death of the vast majority of Israelis? That is not speech — that is pure incitement. Some might call it rock and roll — provocative performance art. But there is a line. Belgian law draws it clearly. When you lead a crowd to call for the death of people defined by their nationality, that line is crossed.”
In addition to legal action, the EJA has submitted an official complaint to UNIA, Belgium’s federal anti-discrimination authority, requesting that it investigate the incident and consider public and legal measures in response to the incitement witnessed.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the EJA, stated:
“Freedom of expression is a pillar of democracy. We recognise it and we defend it. But when an artist leads thousands to chant for the death of others, when hostility toward law enforcement becomes normalised — a red line has been crossed. Belgian law marks that line clearly. Silence is not neutrality — it is complicity. We have initiated legal action and filed an official complaint with UNIA. We now expect the authorities to act. What occurred at Ancienne Belgique is not only a moral lapse — it is a threat to Jewish communities and to Belgian society as a whole, and it demands a firm response.”