Israel's foundation has been called the "most successful terrorist campaign in history", by an author with a history of being accused of promoting antisemitism.

Richard Falk today made the keynote speech at a conference debating the right of Israel to exist when he accused the Zionist leadership of escalating a campaign of violence around the world.

 Mr Falk, who recently authored a rejected UN report that attempted to label Israel an "apartheid state", also claimed Western "guilt" over the Holocaust allowed the state to come into existence in 1948.

The Jewish-born academic also claimed Zionist leaders had been duplicitous, hiding their extreme views from the general public.

Mr Faulk told gathering at Cork City Hall, in Ireland, that the initial campaign to establish a Jewish state had been one of "colonialism".

But that changed and became a "terrorist" campaign that spread beyond the borders of then Palestine and included "threats of letter bombs against Churchill, Attlee and others", he said.

Mr Falk added that Israel had been given "moral justification" because of the Holocaust.

"Liberal democracies felt guilt and it was easy to soothe their consciousness by encouraging and accepting the state of Israel."

He said the “terrorist” campaign has "started the 70-year period of Palestinian suffering."

Mr Falk claimed his recent UN report had been attacked by people who "have not read it" but who objected to the word "apartheid".

Later Dr Ghada Karmi told around 150 participants at the conference, including academics from across Europe and the States, that "the Jews were an unwanted and unpopular people" who were "offloaded" on the Palestinian state.

 The University of Exeter lecturer said:"Jews were not wanted in Europe or the US. "

 In an opening speech Oren Ben-Dor, one of the organisers of the event, said: "We should be using international law as a tool for justice and peace - in that order".