A talk by Israeli ambassador Daniel Taub at Edinburgh University, organised by the Politics and International Relations Society and attended by 150 students on Wednesday evening, was disrupted by chanting students waving Palestinian flags.

According to an Israeli embassy spokesman: “The vast majority of the students in the hall expressed their interest in hearing the ambassador and gathered on one side of the room to hear him speak and ask questions.”

Mr Taub said: “In my experience, people try to stop others from speaking when they have very little to say for themselves.” Professor Mark Aspinwall, chair of the event, apologised to Ambassador Taub on behalf of the university.

Sixty protesters, organised by Edinburgh Students for Justice in Palestine and other groups gathered outside the university. An SJP spokesman said they “opposed the invitation of an official representative of a state which practises a system of apartheid.”