Protestor against  Ayalon's speech
Protestor against Ayalon's speechIsrael news photo: Foreign Ministry

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has gone on the offensive against anti-Semitism and said he is considering suing a British protestor who yelled “slaughter the Jews.” The incident occurred during Ayalon's address at Oxford University Sunday night, where he had been invited to speak.

Television cameras recorded the remark, which the Deputy Minister said was tantamount to genocide and grounds for a suit. He said that his response to the incitement “demonstrates our new policy on hatred and racism, and we will have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism." He added that taking offense against anti-Semitism is “something that should have happened a long time ago.”

During his speech, another protestor carrying a Palestinian flag started walking towards Ayalon before security intervened and ejected him from the lecture hall. Another student shouted at the Deputy Foreign Minister that "we will do to you what we did to [Skobodan] Milosevic,” former Yugoslav president who was found dead in the period he was being tried for war crimes at The Hague.

Other students shouted, both inside and outside the hall, "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea", which Ayalon said effectively “calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.”

After the event several students attempted to physically assault the Deputy Foreign Minister but were prevented from doing so by security.

Students applauded Ayalon following his replies to hostile and abusive questions. Ayalon’s spokesman said that the Deputy Foreign Minister “corrected many students’ assertions on history, international law and United Nations resolutions and told them, ‘If I manage to convince you to go and learn the truth from the history books then this will have been a successful event.’”