Extremist Israeli politician banned from Britain

A politician from Israel's rightist Likud party has become the latest Israeli figure to be banned from travel to the UK.

Moshe Feiglin, leader of the hardline-theological Jewish Leadership faction within Likud, received a letter from the UK's Home Office in December warning him he would not be permitted to enter the country. The Border and Immigration Agency alleged he used his position "to propagate views which foment and provoke others to serious criminal acts and also foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK."

Mr Feiglin, a settler who lives in the northern West Bank, served six months in prison in the mid-1990s for sedition for his role in protests against the Oslo Accords. Other members of Likud have lobbied for his removal from the party, for extremist views that include the need for a 'holy war' against Muslims and the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al Haram al Sharif.

He is not the first Israeli to be warned against travelling to the UK.

Cabinet minister Avi Dichter cancelled a speech at a counter-terrorism conference in December 2007 for fear of arrest after human-rights campaigners begun legal action against him on allegations of war crimes; the former head of Israeli forces in Gaza, Major-General Doron Almog, narrowly avoided arrest in 2005 by staying on an El Al flight until it left London again.

But this is the first time Mr Feiglin said he was shocked by the letter, initially thinking it was a prank, as he had no plans for travel.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said yesterday that while they could not comment on Mr Feiglin's travel plans, "we do sometimes send out letters without people having the notion of travelling to the UK."

"Exclusion powers are very serious and we do not use them lightly," the spokeswoman continued. "We take into account relevant information which may be supplied by other government departments and agencies."

In Israel yesterday, Mr Feiglin criticised the British government for allowing in a Hizbollah-linked journalist, Ibrahim Mousawi, on a lecture tour earlier this month.

"Why would a political activist be banned while a representative of Hizbollah is allowed in? It appears that Great Britain, like all of Europe, has surrendered to extremist Islam," Mr Feiglin told agencies.

Mr Mousawi, a guest of the Stop the War organisation, had his tour criticised by the Conservative leader, David Cameron, as well as various Jewish groups. Hizbollah calls for Israel's destruction and in summer 2006 started a 34-day war with a daring attack on a cross-border patrol, killing three soldiers and kidnapping two others.