Knesset Diaspora committee to hold hearing on minister’s rift with British Jewry

By Sam Sokol 5 October 2025, 1:42 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

The Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs will hold a hearing to discuss Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli’s “harmful conduct” following a high-profile public spat between the Likud politician and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, committee chairman MK Gilad Kariv (The Democrats) announces.

Kariv’s announcement comes after Chikli announced that he would be welcoming far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson to Israel later this month and praised him as a “courageous leader.” The invitation, which came in response to a deadly terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, was denounced by the board and the Jewish Leadership Council, two main organizations representing British Jews.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is founder of the far-right English Defense League, an anti-immigrant group whose members have been accused of racism, xenophobia and terror offenses.

Responding to the board’s statement that he had “proven himself to be a Diaspora Minister in name only,” Chikli responded that the group had become a “political organization — openly aligned with left-wing, woke, pro-Palestinian parties.”

Slamming Chikli, Kariv says that he was “acting in complete contradiction to the positions of Jewish communities around the world, who oppose the normalization of extreme and violent right-wing individuals, organizations, and political parties” — adding that the minister’s actions constituted “a disgraceful exploitation of the role of Minister of Diaspora Affairs.”

“Tommy Robinson is a racist and violent criminal. His support for Israel does not erase his antisemitic past or his extreme-nationalist positions. Cooperating with him is a slap in the face of British Jewry and a direct blow to Israel’s standing in this important European country,” Kariv states, referencing Yaxley-Lennon’s multiple criminal convictions.

Chikli’s behavior “demonstrates how his extremist government not only acts to tear apart and sows discord within Israeli society, but also deeply harms relations with Jewish communities worldwide,” Kariv continues, stating that his committee would “reconvene to discuss this harmful conduct, with the participation of representatives of British Jewry and its umbrella organizations.”