Iranian state broadcaster backs Miller

He hit out at Jewish student groups for lodging complaints about his views and warned Britain was facing an “all out onslaught by the Israeli government”.

“It’s a question of how we defeat the ideology of Zionism in practice.  How do we make sure Zionism is ended essentially?” he said.

“The enemy we face here is Zionism and the imperial policies of the Israeli state.”

He later doubled down on his comments, telling the JC that Jewish students were being used as “political pawns by a violent, racist foreign regime”.

Press TV claimed the backlash provoked by Prof Miller’s views was actually the “intense pressure” of a “Zionist lobby in the UK which appears to be intent on destroying his career”.

The network added: “The concerted campaign against Professor David Miller is widely seen as the latest sign of the Zionist lobby’s relentless political, ideological and cultural offensive in Britain.”

And it highlighted an article Prof Miller wrote in The Electronic Intifada over the weekend, in which he made fresh claims that he was the victim of a smear campaign.

Bristol University said it did “not endorse the comments made by Professor David Miller about our Jewish students” and admitted it received a “significant” number of calls for him to be dismissed.