Arkush mounts strong defence of circumcision after Iceland ban proposal

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) February 19, 2018

Mr Arkush added that he would not want his son to have grown up with other Jewish boys "going into the changing room at a swimming pool and being different."

He continued: "I don't know any Jewish boy who would ever want to reverse it.

"We are proud of the way we look - it is integral to our core values and our identity.

"I am delighted that my parents enabled me to have the procedure to be part of that identity."

Dr Anthony Lempert, chair of the Secular Medical Forum, appeared on the show alongside Mr Arkush and argued circumcising of boys  who he said were too young to consent.

Revealed to have been brought up in a Jewish home himself Dr Lempert claimed he had not given a practice which he called a "branding procedure" much second thought until he had "looked at the evidence."

But Mr Arkush insisted:" I wouldn't have thanked my parents if under Mr Lempert's rule I would have been asked at 16 if I wanted to procedure and told at 16 it is rather painful and much more hazardous. 

"I'd much rather they did it when I was eight days old."

The outgoing Board chief described the Icelandic draft law, which would impose a six year prison term on anyone guilty of "removing part or all of the (childs) sexual organs" , as a" straightforward attack on religious freedom" in the country.

Mr Arkush added that if Iceland wished to ban something they did not approve of the government should look at smoking which does "such harm" even to those who do not smoke.