Tommy Robinson arrested on march against anti-Semitism!

 

Tommy Robinson Under Arrest

Among the lesser celebrities who turned up to support Sundays march against anti-Semitism, was the far-right anti-Muslim activist, Stephen Yaxley Lennon (40), better known as Tommy Robinson, founder of the English Defence League (EDL). Although Robinson is a self-declared "Zionist" and a supporter of the Zionist nationalist state of Israel who boasts of his love for the country, his presence on the march, seems to have caused some embarrassment. It seems he was arrested by officers of the Met when he refused to comply with a direction to disperse under Section 35 of the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. The police told Robinson, that this continued presence in the area was likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to others. He was directed to leave the area but refused to do so and was arrested and escorted away by the police.

Robinson has a lengthy criminal record which includes convictions for violence, contempt of court, drug possession, stalking and mortgage and immigration fraud. A former member of the neo-fascist and white nationalist British National Party (BNP), he has served at least four separate terms of imprisonment. Robinson was also a political advisor to the former UKIP leader, Gerrard Batten. In 2019, the news channel Al-Jazeera, reported that both Robinson and the far-right Dutch racist Geert Wilders, received money from the pro-Israel think tank, the Middle East Forum, to offset their legal costs after they were charged with incitement of hate against Muslims.

Although the leaders of Sunday's march said they wanted nothing to do with the former BNP member, Robinson has been invited on sponsored trips to Israel where he visited illegal Israeli settlements and was even pictured, carrying a rifle while standing on an Israeli army tank in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. In 2017, Tommy Robinson met with members of Manchester's Jewish community at a secret gathering in Prestwich. According to the Jewish Chronicle, one community member said her friends had organised the meet-up but she would "take legal action" if her own name was linked to the event. The 'meet-up' was acknowledged by Robinson on Twitter. It's believed that he addressed around dozen people at the meeting in Prestwich where he outlined his extremist views on Islam. Other Jewish organisations in Britain condemned the meeting.

Tommy Robinson is not the only far-right leader to have received a warm welcome in Israel. In 2018, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, visited Israel and was described by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has a "True Friend of Israel." The visit proved controversial with some Israeli protestors accusing the Hungarian leader of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism in his home country. The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, also received a warm welcome from Netanyahu when he made a four-day visit in 2018. His visit to the country also proved controversial after he compared his anti-drug campaign to the Holocaust. In a rambling speech Duterte had said: "Hitler massacred three million Jews, now, there is three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them." Clearly, some people can be anti-Semites while still admiring Israel as a tough, militaristic, nationalist, apartheid state.