British far-right activist Tommy Robinson has just wrapped up his tour of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Invited by Israel’s diaspora minister, Robinson visited the Nova Festival Memorial, met Tel Aviv–based anti-immigration activist Sheffi Paz, traveled to the West Bank settlement of Shilo, and conducted multiple interviews for his social media channels.
During the visit, Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed that he had gained a better understanding of the prejudice that Jews face — although this didn’t stop him from attacking Jewish organizations in Britain for supposedly encouraging migration. He also suggested that it’s Israeli control that keeps Christians safe in Jerusalem (ignoring repeated attacks on Christians by Israeli extremists and the fact that two Palestinian Muslim families hold the keys to the city’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre).
Yet the significance of this trip is not about what Robinson says he believes. It symbolizes the culmination of a growing bond between the European far right and Israeli officials. This was, indeed, an official visit organized by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Taking stock of what Israel represents today, it comes as little surprise that the red carpet was rolled out for Robinson.
For at least the past two decades, European far-right figures have been keen to reach out to Israel and take part in solidarity visits. Apart from small neo-Nazi and hard-line fascist groups, this is increasingly the norm. Among others, politicians from the Flemish Vlaams Belang, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National in France, the Sweden Democrats, the Dutch Party for Freedom, Italy’s Lega, and Spain’s Vox — not forgetting Israel’s staunch ally, the Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán — have all headed to Israel in recent years to meet politicians and, more recently, express their steadfast support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza.
Things weren’t always like this. In Israel’s…
Auteur: Omran Shroufi
