Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has referred to Britain as the “Islamic Republic of Britain” – a remark that comes amid growing strains between the historically close allies.
The comments, made during an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, echoed a familiar far-right trope portraying Britain as being influenced by its small Muslim population. In this case, against Israel.
But the genocide in Gaza has shifted public opinion worldwide more firmly in favour of the Palestinians and against Israel, especially in Europe. European countries, including the UK, have started to distance themselves from Israel.
Historically, Britain has been a firm backer of Israel, and even during the current genocide in Gaza, it has still armed and assisted Israel.
That hasn’t stopped the Israeli leader from making the jibe.
Netanyahu complained about what he sees as the negative British media coverage of Israel, comparing it with coverage during the 1967 Six-Day War.
He praised the British writer Randolph Churchill for the “positive” coverage of Israel during the war, before saying: “Go find that in Britain today, which you could call the Islamic Republic of Britain.”
When the host countered, “Isn’t all of Europe like that?”, Netanyahu replied: “Yes, but you know, someone said the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic republic of Britain.”
In fact, the Muslim country Pakistan already has nuclear weapons since the 1990s.
Strain between UK and Israel
Netanyahu’s comments come as relations between London and Tel Aviv face increasing strain over Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Last year, the UK joined France, Canada and other allies to recognise a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, new Prime Minister Andy Burnham apologised for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying the party had been too slow to call for a ceasefire.
“That is why we need to do more, which includes looking at further sanctions on those involved in the violence in Gaza but also looking at measures to ban trading goods with illegal settlements,” Burnham said recently. “We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government.
Netanyahu’s comments seem to suggest Britain’s increasingly critical stance towards Israel is linked to the influence of Muslims in the country.
But Muslims make up only 6.7% of the UK population, while polling shows that public opinion shifting towards Palestine extends well beyond the Muslim community.
YouGo sentiment polls show Britons already sympathised more with the Palestinians than Israelis before October 2023 but that Palestinian advantage has widened substantially since.
