Israeli PM urges European Jews to immigrate to Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on European Jews to move to Israel, following a deadly shooting at a synagogue in Denmark's capital Copenhagen, which killed one security guard.

"Jews were killed on European land just because they were Jewish," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, according to a statement from his office.

"This wave of attacks will continue. I say to the Jews living in Europe -- Israeli is your home," Netanyahu added.

The prime minister also said the government would discuss a plan to encourage immigration of Jews from France, Belgium and Ukraine, with an estimated cost of 180 million shekels (46.3 million U.S. dollars).

Two shooting attacks took place in Copenhagen on Saturday. One man was killed at a shooting attack on a café, along with a cartoonist, who drew Mohammad as a dog, apparently the target of the attack.

Later on Saturday, a Jewish security guard was killed outside a synagogue where a Bat Mitzvah ceremony (Jewish ceremony for girls reaching the age of 12) took place.

Denmark's police announced it had killed who they believe was the perpetrator of both attacks. Further details regarding the incidents and their motives was yet to be released.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also addressed the attacks in Copenhagen in a post he wrote on his Facebook page.

"Israel and Jews are hit by terrorism because they are at the frontline of the war that terror is waging against the West and the rest of the free world," Lieberman wrote.

He called on the international community for "more than declarations and demonstrations against terrorism, but to shake off the rules of political correctness and fight a real all-out war with Islamic terror and its roots."

According to the 1950 Israeli law, known as the "Law of Return," Jews around the world can immigrate to Israel (and are supplied with benefits upon arrival), as Israel views itself the state of the Jewish people.

Netanyahu's call for European Jews to immigrate to Israel last month has angered some Jewish European organizations.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director of the European Jewish Association, told the Ma'ariv daily website last month that "after every anti-Semitic attack in Europe, the Israeli government issues the same statements about the importance of immigration to Israel, rather than employ every diplomatic and international means at their disposal to strengthen the safety of Jewish life in Europe."

He said these calls for European Jews to immigrate to Israel "weakens and damages the Jewish communities that have the right to live securely wherever they can." Endit