A British student is trying to forge links between his West Bank yeshivah and an international movement which advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Joseph Benedyk, from London, who is spending a year in the Etzion settlement bloc before taking up a place at Cambridge University, is encouraging the yeshivah to host speakers from One Voice, which supports Palestinians and Israelis in favour of compromise.

“This could be, at best, something revolutionary and, at worst, extremely constructive,” he told a meeting of the European branch of One Voice in London on Tuesday, speaking via Skype.

Usama Hasan, senior researcher at the anti-extremist think tank, the Quilliam Foundation, and the former imam of a London mosque, told the meeting that attitudes among British Muslims towards Israel were changing.

More Muslims were visiting Israel and Palestine and seeing the reality for themselves, he said.

While there were Muslim groups and media which still gave a “very one-sided view of the conflict”, he was hopeful that “common sense will prevail”.