Israel’s ruling Likud party, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has joined the European alliance of far-right parties, Patriots.eu, as an observer member, aligning it with fascists and Holocaust deniers who are today fanatical supporters of Israel.
The grouping was founded by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a friend of Donald Trump who is known for his authoritarian assault on the courts, independent media and activists and his vicious scapegoating of migrants and LGBTIQ+ people. He has also used antisemitic imagery depicting Jewish financiers plotting to control the world, including George Soros, in his election campaigns.
The grouping is currently led by France’s National Rally, a party founded and led by fascists, and also includes the German AfD, which is increasingly dominated by organised Nazis such as Bjorn Hocke, who was convicted in 2023 for using a banned Nazi slogan.
Most of these far-right parties try to hide their antisemitism, focusing on the use of extreme racism against Muslims, migrants and refugees.
But in the case of Austria’s Freedom Party the antisemitism is barely disguised. It has blocked the idea of building a Holocaust Museum and its leader, Herbert Kickl, campaigned promising he would be a Volkskanzler, or “people’s chancellor”, a term borrowed straight from Adolf Hitler. Senior party officials sang a Nazi SS song at the funeral of a party elder last year. The party was established by former Nazis after the Second World War.
The Freedom Party is, however, an enthusiastic supporter of Israel and its genocide in Gaza, along with all the parties in the alliance. In 2010 it signed the “Jerusalem Declaration” alongside other far-right parties, backing Israel’s “right to exist” and “right to self-defence” against what it called “Islamic terror”.
Last month Netanyahu also defended Elon Musk after his Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration, saying he was “being falsely smeared”. He was, Netanyahu said, “a great friend of Israel”.
By James Supple
