ISRAEL-UNITED KINGDOM

Netanyahu hits out at British national student union

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a furious Israeli backlash against Britain's leading student body after it voted to ally itself with a Palestinian group that campaigns for an economic and cultural boycott of Israel, writes Robert Tait for The Telegraph.

The prime minister accused the National Union of Students of the UK of being "hostile to the truth" following a vote by its executive council to affiliate itself with the ‘Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions’, or BDS, campaign. The vote on 2 June – proposed by London's School of Oriental and African Studies students' union – came amid rising concern in Israel that pro-boycott movements are gathering momentum under the influence of a so-called "diplomatic tsunami" inspired by Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, in his drive for statehood.

Netanyahu, who warned that Israel was facing a "campaign of delegitimisation" meant to "blacken" its name, condemned the students before meeting Robert Nicholson, Canada's foreign affairs minister, in Jerusalem.
Full report on The Telegraph site