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Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister danny Ayalon's visit to Britain was part of the information campaign launched by Israel to counter the Goldstone Report.
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LONDON (EJP)---Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who was on a two-day visit to Britain on Tuesday, gave a lecture to students at the London School of Economics, where he was met with anti-Israeli protests by students chanting "Free Palestine” and trying to disrupt his speech.
"The aim of those who constantly disrupted the Deputy Foreign Minister's presentation at LSE was to force him to leave or have others cancel the event. These people were not interested in a free and open debate and thankfully were dismally unsuccessful in their aims," Ayalon’s spokesman told EJP.
"The Deputy Foreign Minister demonstrated very ably that the Israeli voice will be heard even in problematic places like European university campuses and we will not be intimidated," Ashley Perry added.
In his speech on "The Situation in the Middle East: The view from Israel,” Ayalon talked about the need for historic reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, the Jewish right to self-determination and called the Goldstone report on the Gaza war “biased and flawed.”
At one point a heckler kept on saying that the Jews have no connection to the land and that it's Palestinian land. Ayalon replied by asking if the heckler could name one ruler or king of an independent Palestinian state and pointed to the fact that there has never been one in history.
On Monday, Israel’s embassy in London received a warning that a request had been filed to issue an arrest warrant against Ayalon for “war crimes.” Following an evaluation of the situation, the embassy decided that the Minister would continue his visit as planned with tightened security measures.
"The fact that the Deputy Foreign Minister was not in the government during Operation Cast Lead or recently participated in active military service shows that it is not perceived "war crimes" that motivates these people, but the fact that any Israeli voice is bring heard. These demonstrations have successfully unmasked this truth and the sheer hatred behind their agenda, which has nothing to do with caring for the Palestinians," Ayalon’s spokesman commented.
Earlier this month, another Israeli Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, a former chief of General Staff, declined an invitation to travel to Britain to speak at a Jewish charity fundraising event, for fear that he might face arrest on charges of war crimes.
In September, British authorities rejected a petition to arrest Defence Minister Ehud Barak during his London visit.
Britain allows the issuance of arrest warrents against foreign citizens suspected of war crimes.
During his visit, which was part of an information campaign launched by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman to counter the Goldstone Report, Ayalon met with Ivan Lewis, Minister of State responsible for the Middle East and North Africa in the Foreign Office, Simon McDonald, senior adviser to the British Prime Minister on Foreign and Defence Policy, and Michael Foster, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development.
He also had meetings with the Friends of Israel in the Labor and Conservative parties, and with leaders of the British Jewish community.