Prominent Canadian Neo-Nazi Huge Fan of Drew Pavlou

Drew Pavlou's Islamophobia and anti-Arab smears has made him very popular with Canadian Neo-Nazi Andrew Benson.

Over the last 12 months, protest pest Drew Pavlou has spent less time harassing people in public and more time online spreading hate and lies to smear Arabs, Muslims and leftists.

Through his Twitter, Pavlou has spread multiple false and racist claims to attack pro-Palestinians with zero remorse in order to farm engagement and make money.

He made assertions about a “Jewish girl bashed to the point of unconsciousness” by pro-Palestinian “thugs” at UCLA which remain up to this day without any correction, even after the woman admitted to the Los Angeles Times that she was pushed over by another pro-Israel demonstrator.

Another post reading “Hamas flag spotted in Melbourne. It’s illegal to fly the Hamas flag in Australia as Hamas is a designated terrorist organisation.” was deleted quietly without any apology after it turned out to be an Ashura Day flag.

And most recently, after ultranationalist Israeli football hooligans incited violence in Amsterdam Drew posted about “Masked brigades of Islamist radicals lynching Jews in the streets of Amsterdam” accompanied with a video of armed men attacking people in central Amsterdam.

This tweet also remains up despite Drew knowing full well that the men pictured in the video are Maccabi Ultras, the racist Israeli hooligans who had spent the previous two days attacking Dutch citizens who looked Arab, and singing racist songs mocking dead Palestinian children and calling for the extermination of Arabs.

The author of the video Drew retweeted has come out and made this point well known, even threatening to sue another Islamophobic influencer like Pavlou for misrepresenting their footage.

The problem with spreading the level of racist hate that Pavlou has been using to earn an income is that it attracts some hateful support, enter Canadian Neo-Nazi Andrew Benson.

Back in August, I noticed Drew following a Twitter account with a mirrored version of the Neo-Nazi Wolfsangel, a symbol which supporters of the Ukrainian AZOV Battalion, which was itself formed by a group of Ukrainian Nazis.

Since AZOV has been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces it has largely been purged of the more radical elements it grew out of, the group still holds reverence among some Neo-Nazis though.

The account whose handle was a combination of Banderite for followers of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera who was the leader of the Order of Ukrainian Nationalists Bandera (OUN-B), a group of Ukrainian fascists who directly participated in the slaughter of Jews in Ukraine during the Holocaust and 14, for the fourteen words white supremacist slogan made popular Neo-Nazi David Lane who was a member of the terrorist group the Order.

After some digging, I found that the Twitter account belonged to prominent Canadian Neo-Nazi Andrew Benson.

Benson has an extensive history as a Neo-Nazi with groups like the Aryan Guard, Blood and Honour and Western European Bloodline dating back over a decade and expertly detailed by https://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com

Benson runs multiple Telegram channels which frequently posted Neo-Nazi content alongside compliments of Drew Pavlou’s Islamophobic rhetoric and ranting about “anti-white leftists”, links to Drew Pavlou’s YouTube videos and even links to a fundraiser bearing Drew Pavlou’s name.

The fundraiser was posted to Pavlou’s Twitter on the 23rd of June this year, and then a day later to multiple Telegram channels run by Benson.

After Pavlou’s fundraiser was posted in Neo-Nazi Telegram channels he received $470 from multiple sources mostly anonymous, it’s quite possible that some or most of this money came directly from Benson and the other Neo-Nazis in his encrypted Telegram channels.

The money from Drew’s fundraiser was then donated to the Defend Ukraine Appeal, a pro-Ukrainian fund run by Stefan Romaniw, who as outlined by researcher Moss Robeson was the leader of the fascist OUN-B between 2009-2022.

This is the audience Drew Pavlou is cultivating with his hate, the money he earns comes from the views of people like Benson who tune in to get their Islamophobic fix.

For most people, support from Neo-Nazis would be enough to prompt some self reflection, a change in approach, or a stark repudiation of Benson and his ilk, but for Drew Pavlou he doesn’t care where the praise or the donations come from, as long as they come.

That’s why even now, knowing full well who Andrew Benson is, Pavlou is still following him, and still silent on the issue.