On Saturday evening, Tommy Robinson will be speaking in Tel Aviv. He has been invited by Amichai Chikli, the Israeli minister for the diaspora 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.
This is the latest episode in Chikli’s belligerent assaults on British Jews and a conflict with their representative organisations. The Board of Deputies of British Jews together with the Jewish Leadership Council have described Robinson as a “thug” who represented “the worst in Britain”.
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 of this is above the politics of left and right. Chikli has undisguised ambitions to serve in any future Likud administration after an ageing and isolated Binyamin Netanyahu is put out to pasture. Both his and Robinson’s opportunism work for each other.
• Sir Ephraim Mirvis: Stopping violent extremism begins with educating our young
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 was open to all 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 after the founding father of the Israeli right, Vladimir Jabotinsky. Having spent almost 30 years researching there, I have resigned from its academic committee. I consider Chikli’s invitation to Robinson to be a disgrace and a politicised interference in academic affairs. Everyone has red lines that should not be crossed.
Colin Shindler’s latest book, A Forever War: Israel, Palestine and the Struggles for Statehood, will be published by Swift Press in February