The Grift

By JOE MULHALL 

Anyone who has followed Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) over the years will have noticed the vast amounts of money he has acquired through hateful activism. Expensive clothes, large houses, flashy cars and blingy watches have all been funded by his gullible supporters.Even in the early days of the English Defence League, Lennon regularly traveled abroad to meet with like-minded activists from the Defence League network and the so-called counter-jihad movement. 

While he used to meet with fringe far-right figures and attend extremist rallies, he now increasingly meets with elected officials and powerful millionaires. As the global far right has moved from the streets into parliamentary chambers and presidential palaces around the world, previously closed doors have begun to open to Lennon, and with it has come a boost to his  influence and finances. 

Amongst the many countries Lennon has found a warm welcome in, there are four that stand out: Russia, America, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. 

HOPE not hate has investigated his relationships in each of these countries and what emerges is a picture of a British far-right activist with a worryingly influential network of foreign supporters. 

The backing Lennon has received from key figures in these four countries is having a pernicious effect. Some of the support, especially when financial, is tantamount to foreign interference. The results of Lennon’s international network are being felt in our communities and on our streets.

Russia

With so much discussion about Russian interference in Western politics over the last decade, it is unsurprising that there has been widespread speculation about Stephen Lennon’s relationship with the Kremlin. For years now, HOPE not hate has tracked his links, vocal support for and trips to Russia, and a clear picture emerges. 

Lennon receives sustained support and promotion from Russian state-linked media, political figures, and influence networks. In 2019, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda defending Lennon and accusing British authorities of persecuting him for his political views. The statement was subsequently shared on Telegram by both Lennon and the pro-Kremlin Russian journalist Edvard Chesnokov.

Lennon has also repeatedly appeared on Russian media platforms, particularly RT. In 2018, he was interviewed by the RT reporter Zoie O’Brien and argued that he had been unfairly targeted for exercising his right to free speech. Two years later, he returned to RT with Oksana Boyko to discuss Islam and his claims about Muslim grooming gangs in the UK.

In February 2020, Lennon finally travelled to Moscow and St Petersburg for a series of meetings, interviews and public appearances. His arrival was announced by Chesnokov, who appears to have acted as a guide or facilitator during the trip.

When Lennon arrived in Moscow, he was greeted by Alexander Malkevich, a journalist and head of The Foundation for National Values Protection, a Russian non-profit that reported on and attempted to influence public opinion at home and abroad. They met at the headquarters of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda where a press conference had been arranged with the theme: “What’s going on with free speech in Europe?” Lennon was introduced as a “politician and journalist”, rather more elevated than his early career as a football hooligan and tanning shop owner.

Malkevich had previously been head of a propaganda outlet called USA Really. In 2018, he was sanctioned by the US for election interference after running a troll factory in Russia that disseminated disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election. He was arrested as he entered the US ahead of the midterm elections in 2018.

USA Really was linked to the Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close associate of Putin, whose companies have spearheaded high-profile influence operations around the world. It was Prigozhin who funded Malkevich’s Internet Research Agency troll factory which is believed to have been behind numerous Twitter accounts which amplified several far right and anti-Muslim figures, including Stephen Lennon.

Since then, Malkevich has continued to operate as a key pro-Putin propagandist. In recent years he has become increasingly involved in African politics (which coincided with a rise in Russian interest and influence in the region), in Afghanistan and, more recently, in Ukraine. The US State Department has offered a reward for more information on Malkevich.

Malkevich’s background certainly did not cause Lennon a moment’s concern. Standing alongside him in Moscow, the former English Defence League leader parroted key pro-Putin lines. “I truthfully believe the Assad chemical attack was total propaganda for a war in Syria, to get the public support to go to war,” he said.

He also claimed: “Russians see Putin as the defender of their country. He is a strong politician. The West doesn’t have enough strong men. Western politicians are emasculated.”

Lennon also gave an interview to the Russian news website Vechernyaya Moskva, which later published an article titled: “British Politician Robinson: Let’s Break Up the European Union Together.” During the interview, Lennon denied Russian involvement in the Skripal poisoning, claiming: “If Russia needed to remove him, they would do it quietly, without unnecessary noise, without the use of Russian chemical weapons. It was stupid.”

When asked if he would like to meet Putin, he replied:

“Of course, I’d like to meet. I would say: ‘Let’s drink a glass of beer, Vladimir.’ He is the strongest man in the West. I would ask Putin to fight against the censorship and propaganda that is being used against his country as well.”

Lennon’s own YouTube channel later published a 17-minute video documenting the trip. In it, he spoke positively about Russia, encouraging viewers to visit. Near the end of the video, an off-camera voice identified as his Russian handler can be heard prompting him to mention the hospitality of the Russian people. Beyond direct contacts, Lennon has also benefited from extensive Russian media exposure. At one time, the Russian state-owned video agency Ruptly had 78 Lennon-related videos on their platform. Ruptly’s support has not gone unacknowledged, with Lennon once saying, rather incoherently: “Even Ruptly, if we want a fair broadcast of ourselves, we have to look to Russian news.”

One of Lennon’s more unusual links to Russia was his public endorsement of the political party Za Pravda (“For Truth”), founded by Russian nationalist politician Zakhar Prilepin, a veteran of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In a scripted video message released in 2022, Lennon welcomed the party, spoke of shared values, and said he looked forward to working with it to defend family values, borders,and freedoms. Prilepin later praised Lennon’s protest outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London.

Lennon returns to Russia 

In June 2026, HOPE not hate revealed that Lennon had once again travelled to Russia, this time to meet Errol Musk, father of Elon, in the bar of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. Musk was attending the annual Kremlin-backed economic forum in St Peterberg, often described as Russia’s answer to Davos. 

Why Lennon was in the country remains unclear. When asked by The Guardian he said: “I’ve come to see how this country got itself so well on to the straight and narrow and see the beauty of a civilised society here.” He added: “Russia is not the enemy of Britain. That narrative has long since died a natural death. There are those who benefit from pushing Russia as an enemy but everyone laughs at those people now.” Errol Musk offered a few more details, saying he: “brought him out to Russia” at the expense of the Musk Foundation to have meetings with local businessmen. 

While in Russia, Lennon inflamed tensions in the UK by calling for his supporters to take to the streets in response to a stabbing in Belfast. 

Putin’s useful idiot? 

There have been long-standing rumours that Lennon has received funding from Russia, or Russian-linked sources, for pushing his pro-Putin line, but no concrete evidence has ever surfaced. It would be surprising if this were not the case. What is undoubtedly clear, however, is that Lennon has benefited from Russian support and has willingly echoed the state’s talking points. It is no coincidence that his parroting of the Kremlin’s agenda and his praise of Putin run in parallel with the support he has gained from Russian-linked operations, begging the question: if he is not being paid, is he simply Putin’s useful idiot? 

Lennon and the war in Ukraine

As Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Stephen Lennon was quick to react. Like many on the US and European far right, he was (and always had been) highly critical of Ukraine. He strongly opposed Western support and even voiced pro-Russian sentiment.

On Telegram, he insinuated that while “Western powers and Russia are equally to blame for this mess”, the war was actually part of a wider conspiracy to distract from the supposed ongoing erosion of our rights during the pandemic. “Ask yourselves this question…. Why wasn’t this mess avoided???? Who’s forgotten about or got totally distracted from the CHY-NA virus medical apartheid our own governments enforced???”

Digging only slightly deeper into Lennon’s statements, a clear pro-Russian pattern emerged.

He portrayed the British public’s widespread support for Ukraine as a function of media disinformation, and compared it with the “propaganda” supposedly used to indoctrinate the public in favour of vaccines and lockdowns. He amplified Russian claims about US biological experiments in Ukraine, simplified the position of the West as “supporting former IDF [Israeli Defence Force] soldiers, Neo Nazi’s [sic] and Islamists fighting for Ukraine,” and shared pro-Russian news reports by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

He also promoted videos of pro-Russian demonstrations from numerous countries and even  posted blatant lies from the Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik News, which claimed that Ukraine was purposely bombing its own civilians and blaming Russia.

Lennon supported Putin’s efforts to shut down Twitter, the BBC and Facebook in Russia, saying: “The world would be a better place if everyone followed suit.” With characteristic hypocrisy, he then defended the rights of Russia’s state-controlled TV network RT to continue broadcasting in the UK: “That’s ‘freedom of the press’ for you.”

Amplified online by Russia 

With Lennon’s longstanding support for Putin and his amplification of Russian talking points, it is no surprise that some in Russia have sought to repay the favour. 

A report by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) in December 2017 was conclusive: “The level of influence and interference by Russian-linked social media accounts trying to engineer social division in the UK is considerably more extensive than has been reported to date.”

CREST’s report, in collaboration with academics at Cardiff University, identified the systematic use of fake social media accounts, linked to Russia, which amplified the response to four terrorist attacks that had taken place in the UK over the preceding summer. 

The CREST report noted that false accounts were directing messages at “thought communities” that were aligned with their own agenda. “There are multiple instances of them ‘@-ing’ Tommy [Stephen Lennon], former leader of the English Defence League and Nigel Farage. The purpose being to try and stir and amplify the emotions of these groups and those who follow them, who are already ideologically ‘primed’ for such messages to resonate.”

HOPE not hate researchers found that one of these Russia accounts belonged to a “David Jones”, using the Twitter handle @DavidJo52951945. Claiming to be from “Southampton/Isle of Wight”, his pro-Brexit and anti-Muslim Twitter account amassed over 100,000 followers during its four-year existence, and he tweeted 137,000 times. This account also had dozens of interactions with Stephen Lennon during 2017, on issues ranging from “Muslim rape gangs” to the dangers of Islam. The vast majority were retweets, but there were some original tweets as well, similarly tagging Lennon.

In 2018, the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) found that a significant number of the 600 Twitter accounts it analysed (all of which were either directly tied to the Russian government or endorsed its propaganda), had “tweeted prolifically in Robinson’s defence”.

Bret Schafer, a social media analyst at ASD, told The Guardian: “The clustered focus on the Tommy Robinson case in late May suggests that Russian-linked accounts saw his arrest as a clear opportunity to amplify political divisions both in the UK and abroad.”

Lennon and the Starmer Arson Attacks 

More recently, HOPE not hate revealed further support for Lennon from Russian backed online networks. In the same month that Lennon was last in Russia, the trial of the three Ukrainian-born men accused of conspiring to set fire to two houses and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reached its conclusion. 

HOPE not hate revealed that Direct Action, the Russian-linked influence operation which had instigated the attempted arson attacks on Starmer’s property, had not only regularly amplified Lennon’s posts but had also generated its own content to support his activities and campaigns.

Direct Action’s YouTube channel produced a series of professionally-edited propaganda videos promoting Lennon’s planned demonstration in October 2025. These videos were designed to whip up participation in the event and reinforce Lennon’s narratives.

One such video overlaid footage of public disorder and rioting with the slogan: “Join Us – October 26th, Downing Street. Let’s Make England Clean Again.” The video then displayed an image of Prime Minister Keir Starmer accompanied by the text: “Let your feelings out. No Limits. Stop The Traitors.” This was by no means an isolated example of their promotional content, all with encouraged mayhem. 

At the same time, Direct Action was busy publishing material which portrayed Lennon as a political prisoner, claiming that he was being persecuted because of his political views. Lennon’s actual criminal convictions were not mentioned. One post urged supporters to “Stop Starmer’s betrayal”.

When news of the arrests of the three Ukrainians broke, a rumour soon spread online that the alleged perpetrators were, in fact, male sex workers employed by Starmer and that the arson attack was revenge for unpaid bills. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most influential online figures involved in spreading this “ent boys” conspiracy theory was Lennon, who, in the aftermath of the arrests, used his X account to repeat the false claim, thereby increasing its visibility and circulation across social media platforms. 

One particularly prominent post alleged that Starmer had secured a super injunction to prevent information about the supposed rent boy connection from becoming public, and was accompanied by an AI-generated image depicting the prime minister alongside the three men accused of carrying out the attacks; it attracted significant engagement, receiving approximately 117,000 views. Lennon continued to promote similar claims in subsequent posts, with another advancing the same narrative receiving more than 371,000 views, demonstrating the breadth of circulation that Lennon can achieve. 

While Lennon was not alone in spreading these falsehoods, his posts were seen by many more people because of his social media reach, helping to sustain public attention on a narrative that was a complete fabrication. This particular falsehood is now widely believed among many of Lennon’s supporters.

United Arab Emirates 

At first glance, Stephen Lennon and the UAE don’t seem like obvious bedfellows. Yet despite his long history of vociferous anti-Muslim hatred, Lennon has visited the Middle Eastern country on several occasions. 

Back in 2015 the comedian Omar Hamdi had dinner with Lennon and was told the only Muslim country he had visited was Dubai, most likely on holiday. However, the more interesting trip came in late 2025. Most of the headlines focused on him being confronted by the boxer Ty Mitchell during an interview at a Misfits Boxing event. Less attention has been paid to the primary purpose of the trip. “I’m here under the invite of Emirates who I’m here to meet tomorrow to discuss terrorism organisations in the UK,” he said. 

In a video posted to his subscriber-only Substack he said: “Do you know what’s mad? I go to Columbia, I get detained, I get booted out. I go to Mexico, I get detained, I get deported. […] I landed here [Dubai], I sailed through. I just sailed through.” Odd indeed. Before adding with a smile: “I wonder if I get, you know the accusations I get, [you are] a Zionist working for Israel, do you think people will say I’m working for the UAE?”

Lennon’s trip to the UAE wouldn’t be particularly suspicious if it weren’t for his extremely peculiar social media output around the same period. If you have been watching Lennon’s social media accounts since he burst onto the scene in 2009, the content can feel repetitive: endless posts about Muslims, migrants and transgender people, mixed with videos of him ranting to a camera, forehead vein pumping, while on holiday somewhere sunny.

Then, in October 2024, he released a slickly produced video that didn’t quite fit his usual pattern. Standing by the Thames, Lennon launched a furious attack on Qatar, shouting: “Fuck Qatar.” The video appeared to have been filmed by Visegrád 24, a so-called “news” outlet run by Lennon’s long-time ally Stefan Tompson. 

In late 2025, he then released a series of other posts that raise further questions. In September, he posted an attack on Turkey, accusing it of supplying weapons to one side in the ongoing Sudanese civil war:

The following day, he added:

Had the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Turkey not provided weapons to jihadists in the war in Sudan, the war would have ended with a clear defeat for the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey portrayed peace while inflicting death and misery on the Sudanese people, causing widespread despair.

It is extremely odd for Lennon, whose typical concerns are much more domestic, to appear invested in the Sudanese civil war. Moreover, these posts don’t read like his usual content. Since when has Lennon been knowledgeable about Turkish drone technology and electronic warfare systems?  

He returned to the topic in October, posting:

As Turkey and Iran bankroll the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Sudan. The same mobs pushing “free Palestine” disruptions are pushing false narratives. As UAE tries to salvage the situation and end the bloodshed. Blame is shifting towards them. 

In another post, he wrote: “The UK government, alongside the UN, pointing the finger at UAE, they’re complicit in the cover ups and deaths of innocent people.”

For Lennon to be posting about Sudan is extremely out of character and it seems likely that his detailed interest in the civil war might have something to do with a regional enemy of Turkey. The Sudanese civil war has attracted a number of proxy nations helping the different factions, notably the United Arab Emirates. They are hostile to Qatar, but back the Rapid Support Forces that are at war with the military government, which is backed by Turkey. 

When these unusual posts are viewed together, a pattern emerges of him aligning his views with those of the foreign policy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Yemen 

Not long back from the UAE, Lennon decided to start the year with a flurry of very specific X posts about the ongoing war in Yemen. Once again, they don’t read anything like his usual social media posts:

Some peoples in MENA region are resisting against terrorism over there and trying to live in peace as we do here. Such as Southern Yemen people. In Yemen’s fractured landscape, true unity starts with Southern Yemen’s cohesion—from Hadramout to Al-Mahra—as a cornerstone for regional peace.

In another he criticised the Yemeni parliament for issuing a statement “attacking and threatening the Southern Resistance in Yemen”. 

For Lennon to be taking sides in conflicts like Yemen is deeply suspicious. Again, perhaps the UAE’s involvement might provide an answer. The UAE has strongly backed the Southern Transitional Council against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, which is internationally recognised as the government of Yemen. 

Lennon and Visegrád 24

The topic, the mention of specific weapons, and the overall tone all raise the question of whether Lennon actually wrote them himself. The picture becomes even murkier when one looks through Visegrád 24’s feed on X, which is full of fawning pro-UAE content.

Analysis by HOPE not hate has found a raft of posts on Lennon’s social media that are near copies of posts by Visegrád 24, often using the same wording, the same videos or articles and posted within a few hours of each other. 

This series of remarkably similar posts by Lennon and Visegrád 24 in relation to the UAE become even more intriguing in light of an article published by the French magazine, Intelligence Online this January . The outlet reported an internal memo from the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation dated 28 August 2024 that deemed a cooperation plan proposed by Visegrád 24 to be “feasible and likely to improve the Emirates’ reputation among Western audiences.”

The discussions centered on promoting Abu Dhabi’s narrative in Western countries, particularly in relation to its role in combatting what it calls “radical Islam” and extremism. The documents reportedly show the ministry recommending that any cooperation take place through an unofficial entity, using media intermediaries and individuals without formal connections to the Emirati government. 

The article also claimed that in April, Stefan Tompson, a co-founder of Visegrád 24, met in the Emirates with Khalfan Alhosani, an Emirati influencer who is fully committed to Abu Dhabi’s foreign policy.

While no evidence has yet emerged of a formalised agreement being reached it is beyond question that Visegrád 24 has closely aligned its output with the Emirati narrative on a range of issues, including Yemen. They have also launched an X account called Middle East 24 which is followed by a number of Lennon’s closest associates, including Liam Tuffs. 

In light of these revelations and HOPE not hate’s analysis of the remarkable similarities between a range of posts by Visegrád 24 and Lennon on UAE-aligned topics, it seems very likely that Lennon is somehow involved. 

Perhaps all this really is a coincidence. Maybe Lennon has developed a genuine and passionate interest in the wars in Sudan and Yemen, and a particular dislike of Qatar. Maybe he has been brushing up on Turkish drone technology and the complexities of cohesion in Southern Yemen. And maybe he decided to write these X posts in a style he’s never used before. 

United States of America  

In May this year Stephen Lennon once again descended on London for a Unite the Kingdom (UTK) rally. After weeks of begging his supporters for donations he proudly took to the stage to brag that the event was funded in large part by substantial donations from American supporters, including $200,000 from Tennessee-based Republican donor Andy Miller and a further $100,000 from businessman Robert Shillman. 

During his speech, Lennon also publicly thanked Elon Musk for his continued support. It was after this rally that US vice-president, JD Vance, urged anti-immigration activists in the UK to “keep on going”.

The UTK protest came soon after Lennon had spent an extended period in America that spring, meeting like-minded far-right activists, funders and politicians. 

Rumours swirled as to how a man with a criminal record as long as Lennon’s managed to acquire a visa to enter the country. The trip was his first time in America since a 2013 travel ban imposed after it was revealed he entered the US illegally on a friend’s passport. It is highly likely that senior US officials intervened to greenlight Lennon’s visa application which is testament to his influence in the MAGA movement. 

On his US trip, HOPE not hate tracked at least fifty-four meetings with notable US-based figures including meetings with a range of Republican politicians including Senator Tommy Tuberville, Congressmen Chip Roy and Randy Fine as well as Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas. He was also welcomed into the US State Department in Washington DC for a tour with US official Joe Rittenhouse. 

While stateside he met the who’s who of the American far-right including podcaster Tim Pool, former National Security Advisor General Flynn, activist Jack Posobiec, Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, ACT for America founder Bridget Gabriel, former Fox News host Glenn Beck, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and founder Gavin McInnes. 

It is clear that Lennon sees the US as a source of political and financial support and has consciously set out to court American activists and funders. A recent HOPE not hate report into his online activity found that in March 2026, 84% of Lennon’s content focused on personal promotion or US/international news. UK-specific politics accounted for just 19.5% of his posts.

Nothing New? 

While 2026 has seen Lennon’s US fixation grow to new heights he has long looked across the Atlantic for amplification and financial support. As far back as the days of the English Defence League he developed an international strategy that included US-based networks, establishing links with like-minded counter-jihad organisations across North America. For a period, this included neo-conservative organisations and the anti-Islam wing of the Tea Party movement. For a period, Lennon was a prominent player in the international counter-jihad scene, fostering relationships that continue to this day. 

The recent wave of US funding is also just the latest example of American money ending up in his hands. The reported $100,000 Lennon received for his 2026 UTK protest is not the first time he has benefited from the support of Robert Shillman. Back in 2017 he received a “Shillman Fellowship” which supported his employer Rebel Media to the tune of $85,000. 

Similarly, in 2018, the Philadelphia-based thinktank, the Middle East Forum (MEF), run by Daniel Pipes, donated roughly $60,000 (£47,000) to Lennon’s legal fees and demonstrations staged in London that year. 

Beyond direct financial contributions, a number of high-profile right-wing organisations have supported Lennon and lobbied on his behalf in the US. Most notably, New York City-based thinktank, the Gatestone Institute and the California-based The David Horowitz Freedom Center both have a track record of speaking up for and supporting Lennon.

Elon Musk 

Of all the US-based figures to offer Lennon their support, Elon Musk has had the largest influence on his ability to continue his activism and reach ever larger numbers. 

In 2024, Lennon held his largest London rally to date, attracting nearly 30,000 people into Trafalgar Square. In previous years he had struggled to attract significant numbers to his events. Plagued by legal and personal problems, he had spent much of his time abroad and was a much-diminished figure, not least because of his bans from major social media platforms.

In 2018, Lennon had his Twitter account suspended, significantly reducing his ability to mobilise large numbers on the streets. However, once Musk had taken over the platform his account was reinstated and Lennon’s online reach grew to new heights. The importance of this didn’t go unnoticed by Lennon who, while marching thanked Musk on a livestream for returning his account on X. Since getting his account back he has risen to two million followers. 

Musk’s support has since gone well beyond replatforming Lennon. Since acquiring X, Musk has regularly retweeted Lennon’s posts and importantly allowed his banned documentary, which libelled a Syrian refugee, to receive tens of millions of views. Lennon has also claimed that Musk paid his legal fees when he faced trial for refusing to comply with a request made by counter-terrorism police. 

This longstanding support came to a head last year when Musk appeared by video link at a UTK rally. Musk’s inflammatory speech was littered with far-right rhetoric, claiming Britain was being slowly but surely “eroded” by “massive uncontrolled migration”, and that he wanted “Britain to remain Britain”. Musk argued that “there has got to be a change of government in Britain. And we don’t have another four years… it’s too long.” He went on to propose a dissolution of parliament. Taking it a step further, he told the crowd that they “have to fight, [they] have to rally all of the people of Britain to fight for the future and if this doesn’t happen there won’t be a future”. Most alarmingly, Musk warned the crowd: “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back, or you die.”

Worrying Times

Lennon has always looked across the Atlantic for support and finances. What has changed is that while once his connections were with extreme fringe players he now rubs shoulders with influential and powerful people. This says more about the radicalisation of American politics and the rise of Donald Trump than it does about any change to Lennon’s politics. 

However, there is little doubt that the support he has consciously sought and increasingly gained is having a tangible effect on the streets of Britain. His online audience has grown across America and with that has come money which he has used to organise major protests on the streets of our capital. 

Israel 

While Stephen Lennon has fostered links all over the world, it is connections in and praise for Israel that has caused most discussion, both on the left and from those to his right. In his simplified world view, he likes Israel because he doesn’t like Muslims. 

As far back as the English Defence League days, Lennon praised Israel and on numerous occasions has tried to attend pro-Israel marches in the UK. In 2021 he turned up at a London demonstration holding a placard reading, “Free Gaza from Hamas”. Then, in 2023 he was arrested at a march against antisemitism held in the wake of the October 7th attacks in Israel. On both occasions the major institutions of the British Jewish community, including the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), vocally condemned his attendance. “We do not want his ‘support’ and we ask him to stay away from future events,” said the JLC. 

Despite being rebuffed by most of the British Jewish community Lennon’s admiration for Israel has remained undimmed and he has found a warmer welcome from right wing figures on his various trips to the Middle East. 

His first trip to Israel came back in 2016 at the invitation of Brian Thomas (AKA Brian of London). It was on this trip that a now famous picture was taken of Lennon standing atop an Israeli tank in the occupied Golan Heights, holding a firearm. 

Lennon also visited the West Bank and the Dead Sea, met with Christian ministers in Bethlehem, bought an IDF t-shirt and wore a kippah during a visit to the Western Wall. 

Interestingly, this visit drew criticism from people even further to his right and increased long standing allegations from antisemites that he is a “puppet” of the Israeli government. 

2025 Visit 

Much more interesting and important than his first trip was the visit he made to Israel last year. This time around he was invited by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of Likud. The move once again drew condemnations from leading British Jewish groups. 

In a video released upon his arrival, Lennon praised Israel as a “country with strong, patriotic leadership in [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and his [Likud] party”. 

If his first visit was more of a holiday, this trip was more official and saw him meet a range of influential right wing figures in the country. Minister Chikli led Lennon on a tour of the site of the Nova music festival massacre, visited Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market and met with well known anti-immigrant activist Sheffi Paz in Tel Aviv. 

Proof of his increased access came on October 16th when he trained with the elite Duvdevan counterterrorism unit and met with IDF commanders in Sderot near Gaza. He also visited the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and met with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana along with other parliamentarians. 

Funding? 

The big question when it comes to Lennon and Israel has always been whether he has received any funding directly from Israel or figures based in the country. He has always denied it and no one has ever been able to prove otherwise. While there is clear evidence that he has received money from pro-Israel activists in America, many of the claims of Israeli backing are conspiratorial, and often advanced by antisemites. 

However, HOPE not hate has had it confirmed that Lennon has indeed received a significant one-off donation from the Israel-based art-historian. Very little is known about the beyond a spell in the IDF and his donations of rare biblical-era artifacts to the various museums. He is also a major financial patron of archeological excavations in Israel.

As far as we know, this is the only confirmed donation to Lennon from an individual based in Israel.

No Friend of the Jewish Community 

Lennon’s long-term support for Israel has always been more about his dislike of Muslims than about any genuine friendship towards the Jewish community. The fact that his support is now being reciprocated by influential far-right politicians in Israel is no doubt based on their shared animus against  Muslims. 

Proof of Lennon’s own claims to be a friend of the Jewish people are severely undermined by his own history of antisemitism. For example, back in 2022 he published ‘Tommy’s Statement: The Jewish Question’, in which he wrote: “There are powerful Jewish people, claiming to be Zionists, who have their fingers on buttons of power in the entertainment industry, in big tech, in mainstream media, in the music industry, in Hollywood and in governments.”

There is another section titled ‘Do Jews control the media?’ where he again says: “There are many, many Jews in positions of high power and influence all over the world, especially in the USA, it’s no secret. But why are they in positions of power?”

His answer is “that Jews (generally speaking, at least the white European Jews) have an average IQ of 110, so inevitably those Jews will rise to the top of corporations, of big business, of big tech, of news networks, in Hollywood, in government etc etc.”

Despite this, far-right figures in Israel remain happy to support Lennon, invite him to Israel and pander to his anti-Muslim racism.