So declared Labour MP Louise Ellman to a Rep Council audience last Thursday night.

The member for Liverpool Riverside said the well-orchestrated campaigns against Israel have taken a more sinister twist in recent years.

She said: "Things have moved on from legitimate criticism of Israel's policies to delegitimising the state as a whole. As a result many people - often well-meaning - automatically and uncritically adopt a position that Israel is a an apartheid, racist state."

Mrs Ellman said this viewpoint was often promoted by non-governmental organisations and charities such as War on Want and Oxfam, adding that the recent Methodist Church report Justice for Palestine and Israel was a "disturbing" development.

She described the report which calls for a boycott of goods from the Occupied Territories and political lobbying to end the siege of Gaza as "a truly dreadful document."

She commented: "This was a one-sided, biased report which made little mention of the threat posed by Hamas or the antisemitic nature of its charter, sections of which specifically mention Jews rather than Israelis."

Mrs Ellman confessed that she was not optimistic about the outcome of the latest round of peace talks which opened last week in Washington DC.

She did have praise for the role played by Tony Blair as Middle East envoy for The Quartet.

When asked about the position on Israel of the five candidates for Labour leadership, she branded Diane Abbott as "hostile" and Andy Burnham and Ed Balls as "sympathetic".

She is supporting shadow foreign secretary David Miliband, who she said while in government helped develop links between universities in the two countries.