{"id":252897,"date":"2026-08-17T15:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/252897\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:08:11","slug":"uk-far-rights-tommy-robinson-backs-chikli-in-israeli-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/252897\/","title":{"rendered":"UK far-right’s Tommy Robinson backs Chikli in Israeli election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, pictured here on 2 June 2026, has developed close ties to Chikli over their shared hostility towards Islam and hardline nationalist views [Getty]<\/p>\n

British anti-Islam agitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon<\/a>,\u00a0better known as Tommy Robinson,\u00a0has weighed in on Israel’s election campaign, endorsing far-right Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli<\/a> ahead of the Likud primary.<\/p>\n

Yaxley-Lennon appeared in a video shared by Chikli on Saturday, urging Likud members to support his “dear friend” in Monday’s ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I want to wish every success to my dear friend Minister Amichai Chikli,” Yaxley-Lennon said.<\/p>\n

“Minister Chikli understands the problems the West faces and that we must unite all Western patriots for Western civilisation,” he added, before promoting Chikli’s number on the ballot.<\/p>\n

Chikli enthusiastically welcomed the endorsement, boasting of his efforts to deepen Israel’s ties with Europe’s far right and describing his embrace of movements previously shunned by Israeli governments and Jewish organisations as breaking a “foolish boycott”.<\/p>\n

“I will continue to strengthen Israel’s strategic relations with the European Right and the European street, with figures such as Tommy Robinson, who leads a movement of millions of British patriots,” Chikli said. “They are the hope of Europe, the hope of the West.”<\/p>\n

The exchange offered another illustration of the increasingly close relationship between figures in Israel’s governing right and anti-Muslim and anti-immigration movements in Europe.<\/p>\n

Since becoming diaspora affairs minister in 2022, Chikli has cultivated ties with far-right parties and movements across Europe, including Germany’s AfD, Spain’s Vox and France’s National Rally.<\/p>\n

He has also convened international conferences billed as efforts to combat antisemitism while inviting representatives of European parties whose histories, members or affiliates have themselves faced accusations of antisemitism or links to neo-Nazi movements.<\/p>\n

Yaxley-Lennon has become one of Chikli’s most conspicuous allies in Britain. The activist, who has built his political profile through years of campaigning against Islam and Muslims, has increasingly portrayed support for Israel as part of a wider struggle to defend what he calls “Western civilisation”.<\/p>\n

Last October, Chikli invited Yaxley-Lennon to Israel for a week-long hasbara tour<\/a>, during which he published dozens of videos praising Israel, attacking Palestinians and presenting the country as a front-line defender of the West against the Muslim world.<\/p>\n

His embrace by an Israeli cabinet minister drew condemnation even from some of Britain’s leading pro-Israel Jewish organisations.<\/p>\n

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council issued a joint statement describing Yaxley-Lennon as a “thug who represents the very worst of Britain” and accused Chikli of “ignoring the views of the vast majority of British Jews”.<\/p>\n

The relationship also highlights an uncomfortable contradiction in Chikli’s international outreach: an Israeli minister whose portfolio includes combating antisemitism has increasingly sought alliances with Europe’s nationalist right, including movements long regarded with suspicion by Jewish communities because of their histories or associations with antisemitism and the extreme right.<\/p>\n

Yaxley-Lennon’s intervention comes two days before Monday’s Likud primary, when party members will choose candidates for the 27 October parliamentary election.<\/p>\n

The primary will not determine every prominent place on Likud’s electoral slate. The party’s central committee decided last month to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the power to handpick nine candidates for the top 29 positions.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Defence Minister Israel Katz, Likud Central Committee chairman Haim Katz and California-based businessman Oren Dobronsky have already been allocated four of those nine positions.<\/p>\n

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