On Saturday evening, Tommy Robinson will be speaking in Tel Aviv. He has been invited by Amiḥai Chikli, the Israeli Minister for the Diaspora in Netanyahu’s government who has had countless run-ins with many Jewish organisations in the UK.
The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, refused to attend a conference earlier this year because Chikli had invited members of the European far Right – not usually known for their affection for Jews. The Board of Deputies of British Jews together with the Jewish Leadership Council described Robinson as a ‘thug’ who represented ‘the worst in Britain’.
This is the latest episode in Chikli’s belligerent assaults on British Jews and an ongoing conflict with their representative organisations.
Chikli’s invitation to Robinson is little more than an attempt to exploit the fear of British Jews after the attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. The invitation was extended the day after the attack. Chikli dismissed private entreaties, claimed Britain’s Jewish leaders were politically motivated and praised Robinson as ‘a courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam’.
Chikli ridiculed the very suggestion that Robinson, a convicted criminal, is a rabble rouser who wishes to turn one community against another in the UK.
All this is above the politics of Left and Right.
Chikli has undisguised ambitions to serve in any future Likud administration after an aging and isolated Netanyahu is put out to pasture. Both his and Robinson’s opportunism work for each other.
Chikli has invited Robinson to visit institutions such as Yad Vashem in Jerusalem which recalls the victims of the Holocaust. Some have quietly accepted Chikli’s instruction with disgust and disdain. Dani Dayan, the Director of Yad Vashem, said that the institution is open to all visitors but pointedly remarked: ‘Yad Vashem is not involved in any way whatsoever in this planned visit’. Others have spoken of Robinson in the Israeli press as ‘an international figure’ and implied that Robinson understood that ‘freedom must be defended’.
Robinson is also due to visit the Jabotinsky Institute – named for the founding father of the Israeli Right, Vladimir Jabotinsky. Having spent almost 30 years researching there, I have now resigned from its academic committee. I consider Chikli’s invitation to Robinson to be a disgrace and a politicised interference into academic affairs. Everyone has red lines which should not be crossed.
The Times 17 October 2025