A controversial Israeli historian has faced accusations that he is being hypocritical in rejecting his Jewishness.

Professor Shlomo Sand says he no longer regards himself as Jewish.

But at a packed meeting in London, he was challenged over why he had not rejected his Israeli citizenship too.

One woman in the audience at the School of Oriental and African Studies, said that Prof Sand could not effectively reject Judaism in Israel because the government will continue to see him as Jewish.

“It is not a choice. You are opting out, and that is hypocrisy. Pretending you are not Jewish when you continue to be an Israeli Jew is a very problematic way of dealing with important issues.”

Prof Sand, who was promoting his latest book, How I Stopped Being a Jew, told her: “Being a Jew or not being a Jew is private. It's not your interest. I cannot avoid that I am an Israeli. I've lived there almost all my life. But my Judaism is a private affair.”

At one point he pleaded with critics in the crowd: “Let me do what I want! You are not real liberals.”

The bestselling author, who teaches History at Tel Aviv University, went on to suggest that secular Judaism was “too weak to be a real identity” because it was defined by antisemitism, the Holocaust or Israel. That was "perverse", he said.

“You can't join secular Judaism. It’s exclusive and closed-off.”

He also attempted to separate modern Israel from its Jewish origins: “You cannot define the Israeli culture today as the Jewish culture. Every country has religious origins, but Jewishness is not a nationality.”

This prompted angry denials from the crowd, causing him to respond: “It's not! Most Jews don't want to be Israeli!”

The two-hour session finished with Prof Sand saying: “Sorry. I have left this exclusive club.”

Prof Sand caused anger when, in two previous books - The Invention of the Jewish People and The Invention of the Land of Israel - he proposed that both Jews and Israel were artificially constructed concepts.