Pro-Israel students meet in parliament to ‘promote free speech’

Pro-Israel students have gathered in Parliament with pro-Israel lobbyists to hear a Labour MP say her party should abandon anti-Zionism.

Joan Ryan MP, chair of Labour Friends of Israel, was speaking to students at an event organised by StandWithUs to “promote free speech” on Israel, saying: “Efforts to delegitimise and demonise the state of Israel are widespread and growing.”

Tamir Oren of StandWithUs said: “Hearing these students makes me confident in our ability to shift the way Israel is perceived on campuses across the UK.”

The activist group has said it will challenge the annual campus event Israel Apartheid Week with its own Peace Week.