New House Speaker Mike Johnson linked to Israeli far right

Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the US House of Representatives, is an evangelical Christian with close links to Israel's far right, according to a report by Haaretz. 

The Republican lawmaker travelled to Israel in 2020 on a trip organised by a group whose chief executive lives on an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, the report stated.

He visited the Kohelet Policy Forum during the trip, the right wing think tank that has helped shaped the far-right Israeli government's controversial judicial reforms. 

He also visited Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the trip, as part of one of the frequent Israeli incursions led by right-wing groups and lawmakers. 

Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic site where unsolicited visits, prayers and rituals by non-Muslims are forbidden, according to decades-long international agreements. 

Johnson later said the status quo at Al-Aqsa was due to "the radical left" and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.