OPINION: Far right agitators can never be our community's allies

We need to talk about Tommy (or Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to use his real name). Less so the man – much has rightly been said in these pages about his vile views – but what his increased focus on British Jewry reveals about where our community finds itself.

This being said, I was pleased to see Robinson’s recent invitation and visit to Israel widely condemned by prominent voices in Anglo-Jewry. After all, this is an individual who has not only indulged in antisemitic tropes and the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, but also consistently used his platform to spread Islamophobia and anti-refugee sentiment. We can’t allow him to present himself as our friend or to instrumentalise our own fears and concerns.

But we need that same condemnation for others who sanitise their wider agenda by standing against antisemitism. You can never be a welcome ally if your supposed solidarity disguises a hate towards others.

So the reality is that this is about far more than one individual. In fact, in many ways, it’s easy to condemn Robinson: his close association with far-right movements and violence makes his brand of politics particularly unpalatable.

Yet there are others, whose Islamophobia and anti-refugee hate is presented more cleanly, who I fear are making headway. Only a few years ago, it would have seemed unthinkable that these movements, which indulge in antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, could present themselves as a friend of our people. Or, indeed, for far-right demonstrators to begin regularly waving Israel flags at anti-migrant demos.

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My good friend, Rabbi Charley Baginsky, put it so well in Telem last week, writing: “The very figures who claim to champion Jews are those whose politics have normalised conspiratorial thinking, anti-minority rhetoric and social division. Their embrace does not protect us, it isolates us further from the coalitions on which minority safety depends.”

We would do well to remember that. And I would go further: we should recognise that the populist right’s embrace of our community is not universal. Ironically, it’s something highlighted in one of Robinson’s own videos from Israel. Speaking in South Tel Aviv, he states: “There’s a lot of Jew hatred in the UK that say it’s the Jews [who are] the ones bringing the migrants in”. Perhaps it slipped his mind when he failed to mention that it’s many of his friends on the populist and far-right pushing such narratives.

What happens next was interesting. Sheffi Paz – the right-wing anti-migrant agitator who introduces herself as the ‘little Tommy of Israel’ – condones this sentiment.

I’m worried that this is a sign of a new phenomenon: one which we’re starting to see within our community too. Troublingly, contempt for fellow Jews whose politics and positions differ feels more and more common.

Initially, this felt like an online trend, limited to forums where anger easily spreads. But it feels like things have escalated in recent months. I was shocked by the scenes at August’s hostage rally. To then see a populist right figure warmly invited on stage at a different communal demo, just weeks later, felt sickening.

Increasingly, I’ve found myself asking a question I would never previously have considered possible. How can it be, that sections of our community seem willing to ally with figures of the populist and far-right – against their own British Jewish compatriots? It doesn’t seem to matter that the far-right’s support is conditional on being the ‘right kind of Jew’. Or that hatred of the other is baked into these movements.

I know that it has often been a lonely time to be a British Jew. Our community has been through a lot in the past two years, and the appalling Yom Kippur attack will have compounded many fears. From the alarming rise in antisemitism, our anxiety about the fate of the hostages, and the distress many have felt too at the destruction of Gaza, this hasn’t been an easy time.

But we cannot allow this to spill into inter-communal division and hate. We cannot ever side with people who only accept the ‘right kind’ of Jew; whose solidarity is conditional on your political alignment or viewpoints, whether on the right or left of the spectrum. We cannot allow ourselves to be instrumentalised by the burgeoning populist right – or any others who would seek to use our community for their own ends.

There is an ancient Jewish saying that I love to return to: ‘all arguments which are for the sake of Heaven, will endure forever’. With that, we feel a need to respect, and endure, the position of the other – even where we may strongly oppose what they say.

I can only hope that we can return to a time, where whatever our disagreements with each other, we can remain true to our values and an understanding of the danger of only being for ourselves. If we do that, then no political opportunist can claim us for their own.

Rabbi David Mason is the Executive Director of HIAS+JCORE