Shlomo Sand accused of hypocrisy over his rejection of being Jewish

“It is not a choice. You are opting out, and that is hypocrisy. Pretending you are not Jewish when you continue to be an Israeli Jew is a very problematic way of dealing with important issues.”

Prof Sand, who was promoting his latest book, How I Stopped Being a Jew, told her: “Being a Jew or not being a Jew is private. It's not your interest. I cannot avoid that I am an Israeli. I've lived there almost all my life. But my Judaism is a private affair.”

At one point he pleaded with critics in the crowd: “Let me do what I want! You are not real liberals.”

The bestselling author, who teaches History at Tel Aviv University, went on to suggest that secular Judaism was “too weak to be a real identity” because it was defined by antisemitism, the Holocaust or Israel. That was "perverse", he said.

“You can't join secular Judaism. It’s exclusive and closed-off.”

He also attempted to separate modern Israel from its Jewish origins: “You cannot define the Israeli culture today as the Jewish culture. Every country has religious origins, but Jewishness is not a nationality.”

This prompted angry denials from the crowd, causing him to respond: “It's not! Most Jews don't want to be Israeli!”

The two-hour session finished with Prof Sand saying: “Sorry. I have left this exclusive club.”

Prof Sand caused anger when, in two previous books - The Invention of the Jewish People and The Invention of the Land of Israel - he proposed that both Jews and Israel were artificially constructed concepts.