Pro-Palestinian campaigners have launched a campaign to stop Bob Geldof from visiting Israel next month on the basis that going there would damage the singer's "credibility as a defender of the rights of the dispossessed".
The former Boomtown Rats singer is to make his first trip to the country to accept an honorary degree from Ben Gurion University (BGU) in recognition of his anti-poverty work.
But Raymond Deane, the cultural and academic boycott officer for the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Camp (IPSC) has demanded that the star reject it and also pull out of a conference the same week on Israel's humanitarian aid work in Africa.
In a letter to Mr Geldof, who has an honorary knighthood, he said it was "a shock" that the Irish star would accept the BGU award.
