US, Israeli and European far-right figures to gather for conference in Israel

A National Conservatism (NatCon) conference beginning today in Jerusalem advertises a talk from the Trump administration’s anti-terrorism czar alongside speeches from far-right Israeli politicians, European figures who have faced disciplinary action over alleged antisemitism, and Christian nationalist and far-right figures from the United States. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

The Jerusalem event is perhaps the most significant recent gathering to feature large contingents of Israeli nationalists alongside Christian nationalists and far-right European nationalists from a milieu sometimes shadowed by accusations of antisemitism.

Sebastian Gorka, a senior White House official whose May anti-terrorism strategy promised to target and neutralise groups “whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist”, was scheduled to speak at the Jerusalem event, and his presence is still advertised on the website.

But when the Guardian contacted the White House for comment on Gorka’s attendance at the conference, a spokesperson advised that he would no longer be attending due to a scheduling conflict, and that he had condemned Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.

From Israel, the program lists Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, self-declared “fascist homophobe” and internationally sanctioned extremist, and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who in 2023 called for an atom bomb to be dropped on Gaza and was earlier ordered to face disciplinary proceedings for racist incitement against Palestinians.

The Guardian contacted both men for comment.

From Europe come Hans-Georg Maaßen, who once led Germany’s domestic intelligence agency but in 2023 faced an expulsion attempt by his then party, the CDU, for “statements in the language of the milieu of antisemites and conspiracy ideologues”, and Austria’s Harald Vilimsky, whose far-right Freedom party has been subject to a policy of non-engagement by Israel’s own government.

According to Israeli media reports, Vilimsky has played a key role in building a rapprochement between the Freedom party – whose first two leaders after its founding in 1956 were former SS officers – and Tel Aviv. He has visited the country repeatedly and in January reportedly led a European delegation to the country that was received by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, despite criticism from Austria’s own Jewish community.

In a statement, Maaßen wrote: “I firmly reject the claim that I made ‘statements in the language of the milieu of antisemites and conspiracy ideologues’. This deliberately vague wording was never a concrete accusation but a politically motivated label, designed to damage my reputation and to discredit critics of the political mainstream of the time,” Vilimsky was also contacted for comment.

The American contingent includes William Wolfe, a self-described Christian nationalist who has called for “mass deportations, denaturalizations, and remigration” to preserve a white Christian majority, and Jonathan Keeperman, the publisher unmasked by the Guardian in 2024 as the man behind the far-right internet persona “L0m3z”.

Keeperman did not address questions sent to him when asked for comment. Wolfe did not respond directly to questions on his attendance at NatCon, instead sending personal insults.

Dr Brendan McGeever, co-director of Birkbeck University’s Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, said: “Many attendees at NatCon view Israel not just as an ally but as an embodiment of the exclusionary ethnostate they wish to establish. National Conservatism sees in Israel a blueprint for the realization of a white, Christian nation built on racialized exclusion, while far-right Israeli attenders at NatCon often argue that partnering with white Christian nationalists is the best way to protect Israel. It is racism that binds these forces together.”

Attenders will also share a stage with high-profile conservatives including the Heritage Foundation president, Kevin Roberts, and former deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates, who is now vice-president at Heritage’s Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy.

The Guardian contacted Heritage with questions about their attendance at NatCon.

Last October Roberts defended Tucker Carlson after the broadcaster gave a friendly interview to the white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, saying in a video that “the venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division”. He later called the phrase “a terrible choice of words”, and said he and Heritage would speak out against antisemitism. In July a Heritage spokesperson said the thinktank’s “record opposing antisemitism is long, consistent and public”. In May, Heritage elected the Israeli nationalist and rightwing intellectual Yoram Hazony to its board.