40 European Muslims Arrive in Israel To See What Their Local Media Doesn’t Show Them

The Muslim delegation from France and Belgium visited some of Israel’s main political, technological and defense institutions, where they met some of the country’s most prominent leaders.  

A delegation of 40 French and Belgian Muslims arrived in Israel to tour the country in an effort to promote interfaith understanding, tolerance and peace between Jews and Muslims.

The delegation, which landed in Israel last week, is led by Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, head of the French Conference of Imams.

The group’s tour, facilitated by ELNET – European Leadership Network, allowed them to visit some of Israel’s main political, technological and defense institutions, where they met some of the country’s most prominent leaders, including Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

The participants said that what they saw on their visit was vastly different than what is reported about Israel by the mainstream media and on social media in their countries.

Religion in Israel is a very open topic. We saw that with the Bedouins, the Druze, and it doesn’t stop there.

Chalghoumi, head of the French Conference of Imams, told The Media Line how important the visit is to him and explained what drove him to lead this initiative.

The image of Israel among young people in France and Belgium is very negative, according to Chalghoumi. “Due to this image, we unfortunately saw that many young people resorted to violence in Toulouse, Brussels and Paris,” he said.

Chalghoumi said that, as a man of peace, “it was my role to come and bring them to Israel to show them the real image of Israel.”

Imam Hassen Chalghoumi meets with the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson for Arabic Avichay Adraee. (Jonathan Conricus)

Mohamed Mediouni, a Franco-Tunisian university student and a member of the delegation, told The Media Line that his image of Israel changed as soon as he arrived in the country.

Mediouni said that what is presented in local media outlets where he lives, is that “Israelis are the bad guys, and the Palestinians are the poor guys.”

After arriving in Israel, he continued, “we realized that it is a lot more complex than that, that it is a lot bigger than just ‘good guys, bad guys.’”

He noted that he encountered in Israel something that he didn’t expect to see. “Everybody accepts each other. It really impressed me, and I have never seen that before,” he said.

“We saw that everybody is very similar to us, they have families, they have kids, and arriving to Tel Aviv, we saw a city that has liberty and freedom of expression. We saw at the parliament that there are 120 members, and everything is done in full transparency and democracy. It was very impressive to see,” said Mediouni.

The delegation met on Sunday with several Muslim officers in the Israel Defense Forces. One of them, ‘S’, told The Media Line that, for him, it was key to show the real image of Israel to foreign fellow Muslims.

“My message is not to trust only in what you see in the media, you must research things more deeply,” he said.

Officer ‘S’ noted that most of the questions coming from the Muslim visitors were about the news that they saw on their local TV channels. During the conversations, he added, “we proved that most of what they see on the news about Israel is not right, or in context.”

He said that most male members of his family have served in the IDF for generations, and he appreciates doing so as well. “It is an honor to be a Muslim officer in the IDF because I defend my country, my homeland, and my family. It is something that fulfills me,” he said.

Mediouni said that he didn’t know that there were Muslim officers serving in the IDF, and that was just one of the many facts about Israel that he had discovered during the trip.

He also learned that “religion in Israel is a very open topic. We saw that with the Bedouins, the Druze, and it doesn’t stop there,” he said.

Now they became ambassadors for peace, they are the 2% that will change the 98%

Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan Conricus, former IDF international spokesperson, met the group, and explained the complexity of the security challenges that Israel faces.

He told The Media Line that it is especially important to bring Muslims from different countries around the world to Israel, “so that they can understand that what they hear in the international media and what they’re fed by European media is not reality.”

Conricus added that this trip showed the Muslim delegation that “the Israelis are not monsters, the IDF isn’t a bloodthirsty military seeking to kill Palestinians, but a military that defends its own population while trying to minimize harm to non-combatants as it is doing it, and perhaps in one of the most complex areas in the world.”

“I think that the only way that people can really understand and shape their own opinion, is by seeing for themselves,” he added.

Chalghoumi noted how, thanks to this visit in which they interacted with regular Israelis from many religions and cultures, now 40 young and engaged in society European Muslims will go back home with a totally different image of Israel.

“Now they became ambassadors for peace, they are the 2% that will change the 98%,” the imam said.