Following intense backlash, the University of Southampton has withdrawn permission for a conference that was to be held on the premises.

Patrick Sawer and Jonny Paul report for The Telegraph:

Southampton University conference questioning right of Israel to exist scrapped after protests

A leading British university has scrapped scrap plans to host an controversial conference questioning the right of Israel, to exist following a wave of international outrage and threats of protests from both sides.

The University of Southampton has withdrawn permission for the three-day conference to be held on its campus in the face of criticism from opponents who described it as “giving legitimacy to anti-Semitism”.

Critics said the conference – International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism – would be a ‘one-sided’ exercise in Israel-bashing and more than 6,000 people signed a petition calling on the university to cancel it.

One of its most respected former alumni returned his degree in protest and at least one major patron of the university was said to have been considering withdrawing funding.

Organisers describe the conference as “the first of its kind and constitutes a ground-breaking historical event … it is unique because it concerns the legitimacy in international law of the Jewish State of Israel.”