Fight back against BDS, Netanyahu tells UK Jews

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on British Jews in universities to fight back against proponents of the BDS movement against Israel.

The prime minister met Wednesday during his visit to London with leaders of the UK Jewish community, including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and student union leader Hannah Brady.

Brady told Netanyahu how the Union of Jewish Students, along with other groups, is combatting the BDS movement. She said the anti-Israel group, which calls for the boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israel, comprises just five percent of British university students.

“Fight back. Don’t give in,” Netanyahu told Brady, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. “It’s an important struggle for public opinion, and it must be done with determination while making heard in clear voice that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and stands on the front line in the struggle against extremist Islam.”

Earlier in the day hundreds of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators clashed outside the British prime minister’s London residence on Wednesday as the two sides held rival protests ahead of Netanyahu’s visit.

Police officers separated the two groups and took away at least two protesters following minor scuffles and chanting by both sides, according to an AFP photographer.

At least seven people were arrested in total at the demonstrations, the Jewish Chronicle reported.