Mr Patel, who founded the Leicester-based FOA in 1997, accepted that Hamas had been guilty of “terrible stuff” throughout its history.
He said: “I’m not justifying the means they have used throughout their history — some of the stuff is terrible. It doesn’t even help their cause. But you cannot occupy a people, the resistance of people is a right of defence.
“For me the Palestinians do not know how to handle their occupation.But that’s another story.”
Mr Patel, who is also a spokesperson for the British Muslim Initiative group, said he “could not see now how a Palestinian could ask a Jewish person to leave Israel.”
He added: “I think that would be a crime. I feel Jews require a national home because of the crimes they have suffered.”
Mr Patel, 55, insisted attempts to have the Palestine Expo cancelled undermined “the whole democratic means of being able to engage and debate, discuss and disagree.”
He said attempts to shut down events like his played into the hands of “lunatic” Islamist groups like Al Muhajiroun which in turn help to fuel Islamophobia.
