A couple of weeks ago, the British far Right anti-immigration activist, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson, spoke at a large Tel Aviv social gathering, one ostensibly dedicated to hearing all points of view.
He had been invited to Israel by the Minister for the Diaspora, Amiḥai Chikli, who has had several public rows with the leaders of British Jewry. Many British Jews were outraged that Robinson had been invited and there was widespread anger within the community.
Robinson was a member of the white supremacist British National Party and a founder of the English Defence League in the UK. He has served five prison terms during the last 20 years on charges of assault, mortgage fraud and contempt of court.
Many British Jews recalled that their fathers and grandfathers had stopped the march of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists through the Jewish East End of London in 1936. The story of standing up to racists at “the Battle of Cable Street” has been carried down the generations.
UK Jews label him a ‘thug’
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, together with the Jewish Leadership Council, described Robinson as a “thug” who represented “the worst in Britain” and described Chikli as the Minister for the Diaspora “in name only”.
Chikli apparently did not inform the Foreign Ministry of his plan to invite Robinson and several organisations in Israel were clearly uneasy about being instructed to entertain him.
Dani Dayan, the Director of Yad Vashem, commented that while the institution was open to all visitors, he added: “Yad Vashem is not involved in any way whatsoever in this planned visit”.
The Director of the Jabotinsky Institute, however, welcomed “international figures like Mr. Robinson”. This public affirmation led to the resignation of several members of the Institute’s academic committee, including my own.
Most people have red lines whereby a moral stand takes precedence over the allure of expediency. 75% of American Jews refused to vote for Donald Trump last year even though personally and communally, they could have benefited by it. Jewish history had weighed down on them and pointed in a different direction.
Robinson should have been a red line. But the absence of red lines has always afflicted the Zionist far Right, from the time of Jabotinsky’s maximalists almost a century ago, to Chikli’s opportunism today. It manifests itself today in approaches to the Christian evangelicals in the United States. Jewish organisations in general refuse to work with Christian groups that have a conversionist agenda. Not so for adherents of the Israeli Right, who do not care.
For some in Israel, Robinson’s history of violence and right-wing racism mattered little. What mattered was that “he stood by Israel” in its trauma after October 7.
But it was not the Israel of the Hostages’ and Missing Families Forum or that of the protesters every Saturday evening in Tel Aviv, or of those who have doggedly called out Netanyahu for his obfuscation. The cry that there were red lines which should not crossed was regarded as the pathetic moan of a weak-willed Diaspora.
Tommy Robinson made his breakthrough from being a street hoodlum due to the help of Robert J. Shillman, who sits on the Board of the US Friends of the IDF. Shillman has funded many far-Right figures such as Geert Wilders in Holland – and Tommy Robinson in the UK.
Reinvented for social media
His reinvention for the social media age, which expanded his heavy focus on Muslims allegedly involved in child sexual abuse, was the result of his “Shillman fellowship” in 2017 to right-wing Canadian website Rebel Media – now called Rebel News – to the tune of about £85,000 over a year.
Chikli extended the invitation to Robinson to come to Israel the day after the attack on Yom Kippur by a lone Islamist on the congregation of the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. He dismissed any protest at his decision as “politically motivated”. Like Elon Musk and the far-Right in the United States, which understands little about the local situation in the UK, Chikli gushingly lauded Robinson as “a courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam”.
British Jews, however, viewed Robinson differently – as a convicted criminal and a rabble-rouser – who wished to turn one community against another in the UK. They saw Chikli as someone who wished to exploit the tragedy of the Yom Kippur killings to fuel his rise up the greasy pole of Israeli politics. Robinson’s visit to Israel at the behest of Chikli was an exercise in mutual back-scratching.
Robinson had previously tried to address “the Jewish Question” in a 2022 article which he deleted shortly afterwards. He divided the Jews into two types – acceptable ones and disreputable ones. He particularly had it in for the Anti-Defamation League – in his eyes a cesspit of Jewish liberalism and subversion internationally.
He asked: “One last thing about the ADL, how influential is it? How far-reaching are the tentacles of this organisation in the grip of an Obama staffer?”
Rpbinson did not care too much for the funders of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign in 2016. Robinson pointed out that many of her donors in Hollywood were “Jewish or of Jewish ancestry, needless to say, all of them, huge supporters of the Democrat Party, all of them carry huge sway in Hollywood and the direction of American culture through the entertainment industry”. And of course, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein get a mention – but as Jews.
Robinson’s balancing comment was that “of course not all Jews are like this” but on the other hand “there are powerful Jewish people, claiming to be Zionists, who have their fingers on buttons of power in the entertainment industry, in big tech, in mainstream media, in the music industry, in Hollywood and in governments”.
As to the antisemitic comments of rapper Kanye West, whose Australian visa was cancelled: “Is Kanye anti-Jew? I actually don’t believe he is. Did he use imprecise language? Absolutely.”
No wonder Robinson quickly took down his article on the Jewish question. He realised that what he had written could be counter-productive – and it quickly disappeared. Few had the opportunity to absorb his “insight” but numerous Israelis have been gullible enough to praise him as a friend of Israel.
Journalist beaten at talk
Raoul Wootliff, formerly a journalist with the Times of Israel and a native of London before his emigration to Israel, courageously held up a sign at Robinson’s Tel Aviv talk. It read: “Go back to where you came from.”. Wootliff was then set upon by Robinson’s entourage, punched, kicked while down on the floor, spat upon and called a “kapo”.
In 1895, Theodor Herzl witnessed the triumph of the antisemitic and populist Christian Social candidate, Karl Lueger, during the municipal election in Vienna. The Emperor, Franz Josef, initially refused to confirm him in office. It was a factor in Herzl’s decision to turn to Zionism.
Like Robinson, Lueger publicly declared that he had Jewish friends. He, too, chose between acceptable and disreputable Jews to fit his political agenda. As he famously said: “I decide who is a Jew!”
Some things never change.
Jewish Independent 5 November 2025