Gay group backs down on Israel apartheid party

A US gay advocacy group has cancelled plans to allow pro-Palestinian campaigners to host a "Smash Israeli Apartheid" party at its New York headquarters.

The event was due to take place at the city’s LGBT community centre as part of international “Israeli Apartheid Week” at the beginning of March.

But following a campaign by prominent Jewish gay activist Michael Lucas, who condemned it as “a fundraising and awareness party for antisemites”, the centre said it no longer considered the event appropriate.

Mr Lucas, who said when he first heard the idea he had thought it was a joke, had called for the centre’s financial backers to boycott it in response to the “inexcusable decision”.