Left-wing film director Ken Loach has claimed to be a victim of the same campaign that ''brought down'' Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and left pro-Palestinian activists "vilified" and facing ''accusations of racism and antisemitism''.

Speaking at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Nakba Day 2020 event, Mr Loach, a member of Bath Labour Party, added: ''We know the mass media will collude in that fake....in that campaign.

''We must not be put off - we have to tell the story. The abuse we get here is nothing compared to what the Palestinians get in their daily lives.''

The I, Daniel Blake director appeared via video link for the PSC's annual event last Friday alongside a several other speakers including former Pink Floyd star Roger Waters.

The musician, who has long faced allegations of antisemitism over his frequent attacks on the Jewish state, at one stage attacked ''the Israel lobby and the Israeli government and the Israeli special whatever they are called'' for "trying so hard to destroy the voices of support'' for the Palestinians.

Mr Waters said he had been speaking to his ''great friend the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy'' who he said was sounding ''somewhat discouraged'' as a ''lone voice living in Tel Aviv.''

Clutching an accoustic guitar, the millionaire rock star then performed a song he had written for the event which included the lyrics, 'We'll walk hand in hand and we'll take back the land, from the Jordan river to the sea'.

The event was hosted by the PSC's director Ben Jamal alongside Stephanie Fox, director of the Jewish Voice For Peace orgainsation.

Ms Fox said, ''as a Jewish person I still remember the first time I saw Palestinian families being loaded into boats by Jewish militias". This, she said, showed her that it was not the Arabs - as she had been taught under Zionism - who wanted to drive the Jews into the sea, ''but the reverse".

She added that as a "white American'' she invited ''fellow Jews'' watching the event to "engage with hard truths'' and to support the Palestinian ''right of return.''

In another speech, Chief Zwelivelilie Mandela attempted to draw a comparison between the plight of the Palestinians and the Covid-19 panedmic.

He claimed ''loss of life'' and ''destruction'' were the ''very characteristics that have defined life in Palestine for the past seven decades while the world stood by watching in silence.''

Closing the event, Omar Barghouti, a founder of the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement , claimed ''Israeli technology'' was responsible for fuelling a refugee crisis across nations including South Sudan, Rwanda and Latin America.

He added: "Israel itself treats African asylum seekers as a cancer that must be eradicated.''