Jewish communal representatives expressed their disgust to senior officials from Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs at the decision to welcome Tommy Robinson to the country, the JC can reveal.
The far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was invited to Israel at the invitation of Amichai Chikli, Israel’s diaspora affairs minister, shortly after the Heaton Park terror attack in October last year.
The minister, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, had called Robinson a “courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam” and a “true friend of Israel and the Jewish people”.
The JC understands that several Jewish communal organisations recently met with two senior officials from Israel, during which their representatives made abundantly clear their objection to Chikli’s actions.
One senior communal source told the JC: "It was made plain to Israeli officials how outraged British Jews and indeed wider British society was at the decision to roll out the red carpet to a figure as divisive and problematic as Tommy Robinson, a convicted criminal, with a history of racist activity.
“The fact that this occurred so shortly after the Heaton Park terror attack added insult to injury. One can only hope Minister Chikli chooses to listen to what British Jews conveyed to his officials in no uncertain terms".
The decision to invite Robinson, who founded the English Defence League and has been imprisoned five times in the last 20 years, was widely criticised at the time by the Board of Deputies, which described Robinson as “a thug who represents the very worst of Britain,” and the Jewish Leadership Council.
Chikli responded by attacking the Board, saying it had “become first and foremost a political organisation - openly aligned with left-wing, woke, pro-Palestinian parties”.
During his visit to Israel, Robinson said he received an “incredibly warm and strong” welcome and visited the site of the Nova festival massacre, Yad Vashem and the Jabotinsky Institute.
In November 2023, Robinson was excluded from a march against antisemitism and removed by police after failing to comply with an order excluding him from the area of the march.
Gideon Falter, the CEO of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, one of the organisers of the March, told the JC at the time: “No one wants to go for a march with Tommy Robinson”.
Robinson has previously said he blamed “every single Muslim” for “getting away with” the 7/7 bombings, but has since apologised for those remarks.
In 2019, Rebecca Hitchen, campaign manager at the End Violence Against Women Coalition, accused Robinson of “using victims and survivors … to serve his racist and violent agenda.”
In an opinion piece for Metro, she added: “The thuggish men leading far-right marches and inciting racial hatred from platforms in our towns are not women’s rights activists.
“They have never before called for women’s equality, or for sexual freedom, or for women’s right to equality at work, for childcare to be shared between mothers and fathers.”
Israel’s embassy in the UK has been contacted for comment.
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