Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage and Jimmy Carr attend secret Israeli party at British Museum

Middle East Eye

15-05-2025

On Tuesday, staff at the British Museum were reportedly told there would be a "large corporate event" that evening.
They said they were asked to leave work early. That evening, British ministers and prominent politicians were seen arriving at the country's largest museum. So was Jimmy Carr, one of Britain's most prominent television personalities.
The event, which had not been advertised, was no corporate affair. This clandestine party had been organised by the Israeli embassy to celebrate the anniversary of Israel's 77th Independence Day.
Word of the event had been leaked and pro-Palestine protesters arrived outside the museum gates, where they were greeted by the Metropolitan Police - who penned them into a side street.
Inside the museum, the Labour ministers in attendance could listen to entertainment by the host, Carr, while rubbing shoulders with prominent opposition politicians who had been invited to the exclusive bash.
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Among them was Nigel Farage - leader of Reform UK, which polls regularly indicate is the most popular party in the country.
Also seen was Kemi Badenoch - leader of the Conservative party.
It was quite a statement for these British politicians to attend an event at which the keynote speech was given by Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, who once called the Nakba an "Arab lie" and is an avowed opponent of the creation of a Palestinian state.
More so, given that it has been less than a week since Israel's security cabinet approved a plan to "capture" Gaza and hold its territory, and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed that Gaza would be entirely destroyed.
Moreover, earlier on Tuesday, the British government was in court facing a legal challenge over its decision to allow the export of F-35 parts to a global pool that could eventually end up in Israeli jets.
Monstrous that UK Government Ministers can still party in London, celebrating the British contribution to Israel's Gaza Genocide, even as starvation stalks 2 million civilians & Netanyahu publicly makes clear that he intends ethnic cleansing for the entire Palestinian population https://t.co/rT4o2guP8l — William Dalrymple (@DalrympleWill) May 15, 2025
Hotovely is herself no stranger to controversy. She takes an interventionist approach to British politics.
In recent months, for example, the ambassador issued an official complaint to the BBC over a documentary it aired on children in Gaza, because the child's narrator was the son of a minister in Gaza. The film was ultimately pulled.
She also launched an unexpected attack on the mayor of London over his annual Eid al-Fitr message. The Israeli embassy accused him of "spouting Hamas propaganda" for talking about suffering in Gaza (Sadiq Khan's office responded accurately that he has "repeatedly" condemned Hamas).
"Israel knows how to party," wrote journalist Jonny Gould in the caption of a photo he posted of himself in the museum, posing with a delighted-looking Farage.
The walls inside the insitution, which is publicly funded, were lit up in blue and white, the colours of the Israeli flag, and the Israeli national anthem was played.
Speech by British minister
The party was imbued with a serious air when Britain's minister for defence procurement and industry, Maria Eagle, took to the stage to give a speech.
She boasted about the regular Royal Air Force spy planes that have been flying over Gaza on reconnaissance missions, and of Britain's help in defending Israel from Iranian attacks.
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"The UK stood with Israel, with the RAF conducting surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean in support of hostage rescue efforts," Eagle told a rowdy crowd.
"We stood with Israel; when Iran launched its reckless coordinated missile and drone attacks, with RAF aircraft intercepting a number of them."
She said that "it's been hard over the last couple of years to see Israel going through some of the most difficult times in its history".
But it was unclear how much of the speech the crowd heard.
At one point a guest walked onto the stage and took the microphone from Eagle. "She's speaking. I know we're Israeli, I know we don't like listening for long," she told the partygoers, "but please, give her five more minutes, it's really embarassing."
Eagle took it in her stride. "I'm a politician - I expect people to speak over me. You just carry on regardless," she said.
The minister called for "a deal that brings a stop to the fighting, enables the release of all hostages, gets the aid flowing and establishes a political horizon with a credible and irreversible path for peace".
It is unlikely that Hotovely approved of this sentiment. Her own keynote speech focused on emphasising the threat of Iran ("the most dangerous state actor in the world today") and the need to dismantle its nuclear enrichment programme.
'I'm a politician - I expect people to speak over me'
- Maria Eagle, UK defence minister
Stephen Crabb, a former Tory minister, was seen at the event. So was Lord Ian Austin, Britain's trade envoy to Israel.
Middle East Eye spoke to Energy Embargo for Palestine (EEFP), which describes itself as an "anti-imperialist climate organisation" and organised the protest outside the museum.
"It is not lost on us that Maria Eagle's speech in the British Museum comes on the same day that the UK government was brought to court by [legal groups] Glan and Al-Haq," an EEFP spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that EEFP has "exposed the true face of the British Museum, which presents as a progressive institution", and that British Museum staff members were "lied to".
MEE has asked the British Museum for comment.