Israelis have been barred from one of Britain’s top defence academies because of the war in Gaza. The Telegraphhas the story.
The Royal College of Defence Studies will not accept students from Israel from next year, the Government confirmed.
Amir Baram, the Director General of Israel’s Defence ministry, who studied at the college, said the decision was “a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty to an ally at war”.
In a letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), shared with the Telegraph, he called it a “discriminatory act” that amounted to a “disgraceful break with Britain’s proud tradition of tolerance – and plain decency”.
It is the first time that the college has excluded Israelis.
The Royal College of Defence Studies was instituted in 1941 and was Winston Churchill’s brainchild
Maj Gen Baram said the decision came at a time when Israel was “defending international shipping from Houthi aggression, preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of an Islamist regime that chants ‘Death to England’, and fighting to bring home 48 hostages from Hamas captivity”. …
An MoD spokesman said British military educational courses had long been open to personnel from a “wide range of countries, with all UK military courses emphasising compliance with international humanitarian law”.
The Israeli Ministry of Defence said that the ban was on all Israeli citizens enrolling, not just soldiers. …
The exclusion of Israelis from the college is the latest in a string of punitive actions against Israel taken by Downing Street.
The Government banned Israeli officials from participating in the UK’s largest arms exhibition this weekend, and last year Sir Keir Starmer suspended 30 out of 350 British arms export licences to Israel.
The Prime Minister also said Britain would recognise a Palestinian State at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month unless Israel stopped its war against Hamas in Gaza and committed to not annexing the West Bank.
