MK Bezalel Smotrich. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

i24 News – The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the community’s mainstream umbrella organization, issued their disapproval of a visit to the country by Israeli lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism Party.

“We reject his abominable views and the hatred ideology of Bezalel Smotrich and call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door. Get back on the plane Bezalel and be remembered as a disgrace forever,” the top UK Jewish body tweeted in Hebrew on Wednesday.

In the past, Smotrich has repeatedly made comments against Arabs and homosexuals that provoked outcry.

He is currently on a tour of Jewish communities in the UK and France to rally opposition to the Israeli government’s plans for major reforms to state-controlled religious services. The current Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana has proposed plans that include altering the process of conversion, the kosher certification system and others.

Smotrich earlier on Wednesday met in London with a Bnei Akiva group. Bnei Akiva is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world.

Last month, Israel’s two chief rabbis led a rally in Jerusalem against the proposed state religious reforms attended by thousands of Orthodox yeshiva students.

Kahana’s proposed changes would decentralize the conversion process, taking the decisions away from the Chief Rabbinate and putting it in the hands of local rabbis as part of a uniform system across the country.

The other major reform involves Israel’s kosher certificate system. The new rules, which went into effect in January, open the process to all religious councils nationwide rather than businesses having to go through the Chief Rabbinate or their local religious council.