Sir Paul McCartney has followed the success of his first Israeli concert last year by joining conflict-resolution organisation OneVoice.

The former Beatle has been added to the Honorary Board of Advisors for the charity, which works with Israelis and Palestinians to promote a two-state solution to the conflict.

During the gig at Tel Aviv’s Park Hayarkon last September, Sir Paul and his band wore OneVoice pin-badges.

The maverick film director Ken Loach has attacked Israel’s action in Gaza, calling it “one of the great crimes of the last decades” and arguing that the rise in antisemitism is a direct consequence.

Speaking during a Belgian press conference at the launch of an international independent tribunal on the conflict, Mr Loach said individuals and organisations behind Operation Cast Lead would “have to pay” for their actions.

A criminal charge has been dropped against the founder member of an anti-Israel campaign who protested with fake blood on her hands at a rally for Israel.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, was one of eight people arrested during the Salute to Israel parade through central London last June.

As a UJIA float passed her in Haymarket, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi held up her hands, covered in red food dye, and shouted: “Palestinian blood on Israeli hands.”

She was arrested and charged with a public order offence for “causing harassment, alarm and distress”.

An intense lobbying campaign by Jewish organisations has succeeded with the Home Office rejecting a visa application from Hizbollah media relations officer Ibrahim Moussawi.

Under increasing pressure from the Board of Deputies, the Community Security Trust and the JC, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith turned down his request to attend a seminar at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies next week.

Jon Benjamin, Board chief executive, said the result was being treated as a substantial victory.

A conman who defrauded Germany’s richest woman is claimed to have targeted his victim because of her family’s Nazi past.

Helg Sgarbi, dubbed the Swiss Gigolo, was last week jailed for six years for defrauding and attempting to blackmail Susanne Klatten with a videotape of the couple having sex in a hotel.

Ms Klatten, the 68th wealthiest person in the world, is an heir to the BMW fortune and is thought to be worth almost $10 billion.

Her great-grandfather, Gunther Quandt, founded BMW and his first wife, Magda, later married Joseph Goebbels.

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to all 11 charges in connection with a multi-billion dollar investment fraud.

He arrived at a New York courthouse this morning wearing a bullef-proof vest and is expected to be sentenced to a 150-year jail term on June 16.

Madoff, 70, was charged with four counts of fraud, three counts of money laundering, making false statements, perjury, making a false filing to the US financial watchdog, and theft from an employee benefit plan.

Anti-Israel protestors have failed to disrupt a series of lectures by academics and scientists promoting the country’s achievements to British students.

The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) had called for Thursday’s event, at the Science Museum, in west London, to be cancelled.

But its members were joined outside the museum by less than 50 demonstrators from other groups, including Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (JBIG) and students from the adjacent Imperial College.

A visit by Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor to Leeds turned into a “fiasco” after proposed receptions and appointments with civic leaders failed to materialise.

The two-day tour this week was intended to improve interfaith and community relations but was hampered by a series of security concerns and rejected requests for meetings.

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli Embassy issued a press statement outlining the ambassador’s “disappointment” at the cancellation of a meeting with Muslim leaders.

Convicted Holocaust denier David Irving is running an online auction of Nazi memorabilia, including what he claims is one of Hitler’s bones.

Irving was declared bankrupt in 2002 after failing to pay any of the £150,000 costs awarded against him in a lost libel case against American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books.

It is thought the items will be targeted at the US market, where Nazi collectibles sell for substantial prices.

Amnesty International has admitted it has no proof that British weapons were used by the Israeli army during the Gaza conflict.

The human rights organisation had last month accused the UK government of “aiding Israeli war crimes”, and called for a UN arms embargo.

But on Wednesday, Oliver Sprague, the charity’s arms programme director, appeared in front of a parliamentary select committee session on arms export controls.

Plans to twin the cities of Worcester and Gaza have been scrapped.

Worcester City councillors had approved a sister-city motion last month, saying residents felt strongly about January’s conflict and wanted to send a “personal message” of support.

But at a meeting on Monday, Worcester Twinning Association, an independent body which makes the final decision, rejected the proposal.

Its executive committee said there were insufficient resources to take on the “complex arrangements” needed to set up a “meaningful relationship” or active link.

A short film which starred Sir Derek Jacobi as a trickster targeting shivah houses is to be made into a full-length feature.

Sidney Turtlebaum was first screened at last year’s UK Jewish Film Festival, featuring an 80-something gay conman who steals from mourners in the Jewish heartlands of north west London — using a newspaper that looks worryingly like the JC to track down the shivahs.

The 10-minute comedy was shot in Golders Green and funded using a £10,000 grant from the Pears Foundation UKJFF Short Film Fund.

An online property listings company claims it is preparing to advertise holiday homes — in Gaza.

Propertyindex.com swung into action after councillors in Worcester backed plans to twin the city with the war-ravaged area.

Lee Bramzell said his company would soon be offering “desirable properties in the Israeli city” and expected “plenty of interest in the alternative destination”.