Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer told Tuesday's cabinet meeting that Israel should draw up a plan to absorb a possible mass wave of aliyah from France as unrest spreads across that country. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then tasked Sofer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli with preparing a joint plan, The Jerusalem Post reported, citing two sources who were in the room.
"We need to remove the barriers in order to allow them to come here," Sofer said. He told ministers the plan should also be built to help the less affluent members of France's Jewish community.
For French Jews of limited means, the discussion turned to practical support. Smotrich told ministers that money should be set aside both to assist economically vulnerable immigrants and to fund housing projects for the arrivals Israel expects.
Netanyahu backed the push. "We need to do this," he told the ministers.
National Missions Minister Orit Strock warned that Israel should also prepare for the possibility that the protesters in France could begin targeting Jews.
"The people behind these protests are anti-Jewish and anti-Israel elements. Jews are currently afraid to walk around France displaying Jewish symbols. The prime minister must act now vis-à-vis France and prepare an emergency plan to protect those Jews," Strock said.
Sofer himself broke with Smotrich's Religious Zionism party in July. As JFeed reported at the time, he walked out over the party's opposition to drafting chareidi men into the army and its backing for legislation that would lock in their exemption from service.
