US Pro-Israel Think Tank Gave $32,000 to UK Far-Right Organizer Now Leading Masked Anti-Migrant Patrols

The money trail sits in a US court file, not a press release.

In 2018, the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank known for anti-Islam and staunchly pro-Israel positions, gave $32,000 to Daniel Thomas, a British activist recently out of prison, to organize a London rally in support of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the far-right figure known as Tommy Robinson. Thomas had no prior experience running protests. Court documents from a later MEF lawsuit confirm the grant and its purpose.

Seven years on, Thomas, who goes by "Danny Tommo," is leading Patriot Platform, a group he launched in June that describes its aim as getting "boots on the ground" to "organise, mobilise and act with purpose." Over the weekend, hundreds of protesters in black clothing and balaclavas blocked roads in Dover and clashed with police in Portsmouth as the group sought to stop migrants from entering the country, according to reporting from the scene.

A grant, then a lawsuit

The MEF-Thomas relationship did not end well. Six years ago, the think tank sued its own former communications chief, Lisa Barbounis, alleging she had begun a relationship with Thomas after the rally and had failed to disclose what MEF described as his misuse of the grant money.

The lawsuit alleged Barbounis had "begun a drug-fuelled affair with Thomas after the rally, leaked confidential information and failed to disclose his alleged misuse of grant money."

MEF's suit accused Thomas of diverting at least $7,000 of the $32,000 for personal use. The lawsuit against Barbounis was ultimately unsuccessful, but the underlying court record is what documents the funding relationship in the first place, according to The New Arab, which reviewed the filings.

From prison to podium

Thomas, 37, from Hayling Island near Portsmouth, was sentenced to two years in prison in 2016 after Portsmouth Crown Court heard he and two other men stormed a house armed with knives, mistakenly believing the occupant had stolen drugs from them. He is reported to have served as a tank driver with the King's Royal Hussars before an early medical discharge, though that detail carries less certainty in the record.

After his release, Thomas recast himself as a born-again Christian and, within roughly a year, was organizing the 2018 rally that MEF funded. He has since worked with the Raise the Colours movement and built an online following in the hundreds of thousands. He has also spoken publicly about deploying vessels in the Channel to intercept migrant boats and lock down the port of Dover.

None of the claims about MEF's broader support for Yaxley-Lennon's activism are documented with the same specificity as the Thomas grant. The $32,000 payment and the subsequent lawsuit remain the clearest paper trail connecting a US pro-Israel funding network to a figure now organizing masked street patrols on Britain's south coast.