British anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson arrives in Israel

British far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson has arrived in Israel for a visit at the invitation of Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli.

In a video uploaded to X from the arrivals hall at Ben Gurion Airport, Robinson says he is “here to show solidarity with the Jewish people and the Israeli people” after the British government announced that it would recognize an independent Palestinian state — which Robinson repeatedly refers to as a “terrorist state” — last month.

Robinson, the founder of the far-right nationalist English Defense League, says he supports Israel because he “sees it as an ally, as a partner… this is a beacon of freedom and democracy, of rights, of all the things that we as British people hold dear, and all the places surrounding this are human rights violations [sic], terror states and jihad states.”

In the X post accompanying the video, Robinson praises Israel as a “country with strong, patriotic leadership in [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and his party.”

I've arrived in the beautiful nation of Israel ????????

Thank you for the invite @AmichaiChikli

I'm honoured to be here and looking forward to meeting as many people as possible.

A country with strong, patriotic leadership in @netanyahu and his party.

Unlike the weak and… pic.twitter.com/2hxdXPQCJ1

— Tommy Robinson ???????? (@TRobinsonNewEra) October 15, 2025

Chikli’s invitation to Robinson sparked anger among the UK’s leading Jewish groups, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, which decried Robinson in a joint statement as “a thug who represents the very worst of Britain.”

Robinson, born Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, has been imprisoned five times in the last 20 years for a range of offenses spanning from fraud and drug offenses to, most recently, libeling a 15-year-old Syrian refugee.

He founded the EDL to protest against Islamic demonstrations in his hometown of Luton, but it soon attracted a far-right crowd as it became a nationwide movement. He has long campaigned against what he says are crimes committed by Muslim migrants.