A conference organized this week in Prague seek to inform a Czech audience of current foreign policy and strategic challenges faced by the State of Israel, including security threats, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, BDS, anti-Semitism and how to increase support for Israel in Europe.

The event was hosted by the Czech Friends of Israel Association under the title “Israel and Europe 2017: Challenges, Opportunities and Moving Forward,” with the support of the Israeli Embassy, the Israeli-Jewish Congress (IJC) and the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic is considered as one of Israel’s leading allies in Europe and the world. The conference was an opportunity to celebrate and reinforce this already close and exceptionally important strategic relationship between the Czech Republic and the Jewish state.

Arsen Ostrovsky, Executive Director of The Israeli-Jewish Congress declared: "The Czech Republic is one of the closest and strongest friends of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. It is a special bond, grounded in deep history and a shared future.’’

Speaking in the Czech Parliament on the strong support for Israel in the Czech Republic, Amir Ohana, Member of the Knesset, said, "You, the Czech people, are one of our dearest and closest friends. We appreciate that and say thank you!"

Zbyněk Passer, President of the Czech Friends of Israel Association, said: "We are proud to host this conference as a platform to reinforce the strong and close relationship between the Czech Republic and Israel, as well as the exceptionally warm support for the Jewish state and the Jewish people, especially at this critical time."

Additional speakers included Czech Member of Parliament Pavel Sramek, former Member of Knesset Dr. Einat Wilf (who spoke about the peace process and combating the delegitimization of Israel in Europe), Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor, Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch and a number of other high-level speakers from Israel and Czech Republic.

Some 200 members of the Czech Parliament, senior government officials, members of academia, civil society, students, the Jewish community, Christian supporters and other opinion makers attended the conference.