Netanyahu says refugee crisis the ‘worst crimes humanity has seen since Holocaust’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Europe’s refugee crisis is a result of militant Islam in the Middle East which he says sees people running from some of the worst violence since World War II. Netanyahu was speaking Tuesday at a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk who is visiting Jerusalem. The U.N. refugee agency is seeking an extra $30.5 million through the end of this year in an emergency appeal for financial help for Europe’s refugee crisis.

Because of the onslaught of militant Islam in the Middle East and in Africa, Europe is facing the waves, a tsunami of people tragically fleeing from the worst crimes that humanity has seen since the Holocaust.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Tuesday’s appeal by UNHCR comes as the agency projects that some 400,000 new arrivals seeking protection will have come to Europe via the Mediterranean this year — compared to 219,000 last year— and possible 450,000 next year. The funds would supplement an $800 million budget for 2015 and 2016 for helping handle refugee flows to Europe. The plan centers on 12 countries: Belgium, Bosnia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Serbia, Spain, and Turkey. UNHCR has tallied 322,500 arrivals across the Mediterranean this year, nearly half from Syria alone.

to be the voice of those in need of protection and to quickly find a joint approach to address their basic needs.

General Ban Ki-moon

Politics Syrian refugees