The delegation visited Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, the northern border, and met with Isaac Herzog, MPs and the French and Belgian ambassadors
Hassen Chalghoumi, an imam from Drancy known for his involvement in interfaith initiatives, visited Israel for nearly a week earlier this month with a “delegation of 40 young Muslim peace ambassadors from France and Belgium,” he said on his Facebook account.
The trip was made “in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, to work on dialogue, on living better together, beyond differences and clichés”.
The delegation, accompanied by Arié Bensemhoun, director of ELNET France, visited Jerusalem, its Old City and the Dome of the Rock, the Knesset – where they were able to meet the deputies – and the Yad Vashem memorial.
They met with President Isaac Herzog at the presidential residence, as well as General Abu Karem, military secretary, and Ambassador Zvi Vafny, diplomatic adviser.
“During our discussions, they insisted on the importance of our delegation for the promotion of peace in the Near and Middle East region,” said ELNET France.
The delegation also visited the French Embassy in Israel, where they met with the French and Belgian ambassadors, Eric Danon and Jean-Luc Bodson.
In Har Hadir, on the Lebanese border, the young people received “a strategic briefing on the political and military situation of relations between Israel and Lebanon.”
“Our delegation was able to see the danger that Hezbollah poses to Israel and to the world by visiting one of their offensive tunnels. From this visit, our ambassadors draw an unequivocal conclusion: it is urgent that the international community take into account the major threat that Hezbollah’s arsenal poses to the stability of the region and peace in the world,” wrote ELNET.
This was not Imam Chalghoumi’s first visit to Israel. In 2019, during a tour of the West Bank with settler leaders, he said that supporting the boycott of Israel was contrary to Koranic law, and that he hoped to foster dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians so that no “mother — neither Israeli nor Palestinian — cries” in the future.
Last February, the imam said that he and his family had been living under threat from Islamists for years.
In addition to the ransacking of his home, his car was burned in 2009 after the publication of an article denouncing the importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into France; his relatives have also been threatened and members of the Sheikh Yassin collective, now dissolved since the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty last year, managed to enter his home, a few years before the Islamic State issued a fatwa ordering his assassination.
The imam said he goes to the mosque at different times of the day to make it more difficult to pursue a potential attacker. He also said he was wearing a bulletproof vest to protect himself.
Faced with threats, his family changed their name and left France for an unknown country.
Last December, for the second time, the imam celebrated Hanukkah in Dubai.
Hassen Chalghoumi stands out in Muslim religious discourse, particularly by his support for the ban on the burqa in France.
