At British universities

such events from happening by a vocal minority. It is not always easy to be proIsrael on campus but to say it is impossible is an oversimplification,”

Yiftah Curiel, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London, said he had run numerous successful events on campuses last term.

However he called the free speech data “worrying” and said “in the Israeli context it usually takes the form of marginal groups espousing an agenda of hatred, which employ threats and intimidation against fellow students in order to prevent dialogue”.

Spiked’s “Free Speech University Rankings 2016” showed that restrictions on free speech occured at 90 per cent of universities, up from 80 per cent in last year’s rankings. Students’ unions were the worst offenders, with 62 per cent ranked red under the survey’s traffic light system, compared to just 15 per cent of university administrations.

Censorship ranged from “no platform” policies banning speakers to the Edinburgh student union’s “costumes policy” that prevents students dressing up as, among other things, “Mexicans” or “a mental patient”.