Israelis will be banned from one of Britain’s most prestigious defense academies over the fallout from the nearly two-year-old war against Hamas in Gaza, British media reported.
The Royal College of Defence Studies will not accept students from Israel from next year, the British Government confirmed to the Telegraph.
The move is the first such ban on Israelis by the defense academy since its establishment nearly a century ago.
The director general of Israel’s defense ministry, Amir Baram, who along with Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin studied at the college, was quoted in the British daily as calling the decision “a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty to an ally at war.”
The move was a “disgraceful break with Britain’s proud tradition of tolerance—and plain decency,” said Baram, noting that 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.”
A U.K. Defense Ministry spokesman told the Telegraph that while British defense programs were open to personnel from a “wide range of countries, with all UK military courses emphasizing compliance with international humanitarian law… the Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong.”
The spokesman added that “there must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages, and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
Relations between the United Kingdom and Israel have plunged over the ongoing war which was triggered by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which left more than 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians and saw 251 others abducted to Gaza in the single worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The United Kingdom was among five countries who sanctioned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in June for allegedly inciting violence against Palestinians.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer subsequently announced in July that the United Kingdom would recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly this month, following the lead of other European nations including France, unless the Israeli government took substantive steps to end the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The move was strongly condemned by both the United States and Israel.
Earlier this month, the British leader met Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to advance the P.A.’s bilateral relations with London and coordinate ahead of the U.N. General Assembly meeting.
On Sept. 10, Starmer held a tense meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at 10 Downing Street in London, with Herzog firmly opposing the U.K. government’s stance on Israel and Starmer criticizing the Jewish state over the war against Hamas in Gaza and the Sept. 9 strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.
The meeting itself was only announced on the second day of the president’s visit to London at the invitation of the Jewish community. JNS
{Matzav.com}
“At the West Point Military Academy in the US, while wars fought throughout the world are studied to learn military strategy, the Israeli wars are excluded from the curriculum. This is because according to military strategy, Israel should have lost them all. At West Point Military Academy, it benefits to teach logic and not the unexplainable miracles that make up Israel.”