Israeli ambassador draws vocal protest

Over 100 people rallied outside Edinburgh University in protest about a lecture given by the Israeli ambassador earlier this month.

The protest, organised by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), demonstrated against the controversial appearance of Israel’s envoy Ron Proser, amid attacks by Israel claiming seven Palestinian lives.

Mick Napier, chair of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: "The Israeli Ambassador should not have been allowed a platform to justify Israel’s crimes – not in a week when Israel attacked and killed seven Palestinians while claiming it is maintaining a ‘ceasefire’. Not while Israeli bulldozers continue to destroy Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.

"Until such times as Israel ceases to boycott the rights of the Palestinian people, people of conscience have a duty to boycott this shameful Israeli PR exercise.”

Earlier this year, a similar lecture to be given by Prosor was cancelled by the university, after the group threatened to protest against the ambassador, who they described as "the ambassador of the apartheid state of Israel."

The SPSC was established in 2000 in reaction to the second uprising against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and has since campaigned against human rights issues in the region.

SPSC spokesperson Asif Dean told The Journal: “Basically this week alone they’ve killed seven Palestinians while they claim to be maintaining a ceasefire.

“They’ve evicted a family that was in a house for 52 years. This house was given to them by the UN and it was taken over by armed settlers backed up by the army and the police… now they’ve blocked medicines, they’ve blocked food and they’re blocking power going into Gaza.”

But Prosor, who was appointed Israel’s ambassador in 2007, has rejected claims of human rights abuses in the region and has slammed Britain for racial prejudice against Israel.

In an article published by The Telegraph in June, Prosor said: “Israel faces an intensified campaign of de-legitimisation, demonisation and double standards.

“Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a 'one-state solution,' a euphemistic name for a movement advocating Israel's destruction.”

Although Israel claims to be "disengaged" from Gaza, an incident last week involving the arrest of Scottish citizen Andrew Muncie, as well as 15 Palestinian fishermen and two other international human rights observers, took place in Palestinian waters.

The prisoners were seen being transferred by the Israeli Navy from three boats to an Israeli warship, which then headed north .

Also, last week, there were further launches of home-made rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip into Israel. In once such incident, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the firing of two rockets into the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.