Jerusalem – Opposition leader Isaac Herzog called upon the government on Saturday to open its doors to Syrian refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict in the region.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“I spoke with Syrian opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani on the topic of Israel taking in refugees from the fighting in Syria, and to push for an urgent international conference to discuss the matter,” Herzog said in a statement.
“I call on the Israeli government to carry out a process of absorbing refugees from Syria in addition to humanitarian efforts already being made now,” he said.
“Jews can not be indifferent when hundreds of thousands of refugees are searching for a safe haven.”
According to a 2013 study published in The Guardian, Israel has one of the largest immigrant populations per capita.
Many European nations have already vowed to open their doors to migrants fleeing the crisis in Syria.
On Saturday, Austrian police said around 4,000 refugees had arrived from Hungary by bus at the border since the early morning hours, with many more expected to come.
“We estimate that around 4,000 have arrived – and I don’t think that is the end of it,” said Helmut Marban, spokesman for the police in the province of Burgenland, adding some already had continued their journey onwards.
“The numbers could well double, if not more,” he told Reuters. A special half-hourly train service was now running to take people from the border to Vienna on top of 20 buses shuttling back and forth between the Austrian capital and the border with Hungary.
German officials also stated on Saturday that 10,000 refugees were expected to enter Germany during the day after Austria and Germany agreed with Hungary to allow migrants to cross their borders.
“We don’t have reliable figures yet, but we are expecting between 5,000 and 10,000 refugees today,” police spokesman Stefan Sonntag told Reuters on Saturday.
He added officials were still in the progress of coordinating in order to cope with the number of refugees.
he is kidding no?
Herzog is in the opposition all right!
Not only is he opposed to Netanyahu’s coalition, he apparently is opposed to the very existence of the State of Israel!
He’s nuts, or something???
Israel already took in refugees from all of the moslem lands in the 1950s.They were jewish
With an estimated 200,000 Human Beings (Think: Zaidy, Bubby, Daddy, Mom, innocent Kinderlach) killed and millions more injured and displaced, as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors I feel the exact same way.
Make Herzog a refugee: exile him!
why don’t the arab countries take responsibility for their own. After all the arab countries claim how horrible it is living under “Zionist rule”.
What a lunatic. You notice that not one Arab or Muslim State has agreed to take any of them in.
There was a report last week, that said that 70% of refugees (Muslim) placed by the UN has gone to the U.S. Good luck with that!
He will say anything against Bibi even to the point of bringing in to Israel those who hate and want to destroy us. Can we get more hateful than Hertzhog? I bet his grandfather, Chief Rabbi Herzog is rolling in his grave from embarrassment.
Herzog is deranged- let’s sleep with the terrorists-nothing else to say.
That would be national suicide. But if he wants them so badly, surely he can invite 3 or 4 families to stay at his home.
As if we needed another good reason why he shouldn’t be Prime Minister. What a poor sense of judgement.
No reason Israel has to take in more Arabs in their tiny land when there’s hardly enough room for Jews especially when they don’t authorize them to build additional housing. European countries have lots of experience with Arab immigration and are large enough to accommodate Syrians. Let them take in the Syrian refugees.
Herzog, why do you think the majority of Israel didn’t elect you as PM? Because you’re too much of a radical leftist whose brains works like Abbas’ who has the same request to Israel.
the duty isnt any greater then when nobody wanted to take in jews during and before the shoa remember the boat w 3000 jews were denied landing in us canada and cuba and were sunk