The Venezuelan ambassador to Britain has denied that an event, marking 10 years since the outbreak of the second intifada, glorified terrorism.

However at the event, held on Saturday at the embassy’s Bolivar Hall in London and denounced by anti-extremism campaigners as a “celebration of the murder of Israelis”, speakers expressed support for Palestinian resistance against Israel.

Anti-extremism campaigners have called for police to intervene in an event organised by the Venezuelan Embassy in London marking the 10th anniversary of the start of the second intifada.

The event, to be staged on Saturday at Bolivar Hall in central London, has been titled “The Outbreak of the Intifada: Turning Back the Empire.”

It is described as part of “a series of events which commemorates 10 years since the eruption of the defining struggle of our generation.

“It is also a salute to that struggle…against the Zionist-apartheid state.”

Hugo Chavez has met representatives of the Venezuelan Jewish community to discuss antisemitism in the national media – and ended the conversation with a hug.

Following the meeting with the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations, Mr Chavez wrote on Twitter that it had been “an extraordinary meeting”.

He added: “We finished the meeting embracing and praying for peace".

President Hugo Chávez has agreed to meet representatives of Venezuela’s Jewish community to discuss antisemitism in the country’s state-run media.

David Bittan Obadia, vice president of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela (CAIV) said the meeting had been arranged because of concerns about levels of anti-Jewish feeling in Venezuela.

Mr Obadia said: "We do not deem [antisemitism] a state policy, but the government has the tools to stop it.

“We will be very straightforward in expressing our concerns. We can see that the government is willing to cooperate.

Director Oliver Stone has expressed his “regret” for controversial comments in which he said “the Jewish domination of the media” was the reason the Holocaust continued to be so widely discussed.

Mr Stone had told an interviewer that he wanted Hitler’s atrocities to be viewed in context.

He said: “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m.”

"Israel finances the Venezuelan opposition, the counter-revolution. There are groups, even Israeli terrorists, the Mossad, that are after me, trying to kill me."