PRO-PALESTINIAN activists will protest against a visit tonight by Israeli ambassador Mark Regev to Cardiff University.

Mr Regev, who was regularly trotted out on TV to justify Israeli war crimes in his previous role as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman, is due to speak at an event on campus, part of his continuing tour of universities aimed at stemming the rising opposition to Israeli aggression.

When Mr Regev visited the Scottish Parliament in May, he was faced by mass protests.

SNP MP Tommy Sheppard told the Star that Mr Regev was “one of the architects and enthusiastic propagandists of Israeli government strategy, which is the most right-wing in Israel’s history.”

A petition demanding the university cancel tonight’s event has received more than 350 signatures.

In a statement, Cardiff Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said that it was “appalled” that Cardiff University had invited Mark Regev, saying it would be “giving a platform to the official representative of a state that flouts international law and Palestinian human rights.”

Cardiff PSC spokesman Jeff Hurford said Mr Regev was “a living example of the racism that underlies Israeli society.”

He said: “He was born and brought up in Australia, but at the age of 22 he was welcomed as an immigrant to Israel and given immediate citizenship because he was a Jew.

“In contrast, none of the millions of Palestinian refugees has any right to return.”