The UK’s most senior-level defense academy has announced it will not accept Israelis next year due to the Israel-Hamas War.
The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) is part of the Defense Academy of the United Kingdom and was designed to prepare senior leaders for strategic-level defense and international security challenges.
Its students are typically one- and two-star military officers, and senior civilian officials from the UK, with about 50% of the student body coming from abroad.
Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, who studied at RCDS, condemned the decision to exclude Israelis.
“Israel’s exclusion is a profoundly dishonorable act of disloyalty to an ally at war,” he wrote in a letter to the British Ministry of Defence (MoD). “These discriminatory actions amount to a disgraceful break with Britain’s proud tradition of tolerance, and plain decency.”
Baram showed the letter to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Israel is in the midst of “defending international shipping from Houthi aggression, preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of an Islamist regime that chants ‘Death to England!’ and fighting to bring home 48 hostages from Hamas captivity,” he wrote.
RCDS exlusion is 'attempt to silence Israeli voices' Baram claims
The exclusion, therefore, is an attempt to “silence Israeli voices,” Baram wrote, adding that “Israel’s exclusion is nothing less than an act of self-sabotage of British security.”
An MoD spokesperson told The Telegraph that British military educational courses had long been open to personnel from a “wide range of countries, with all UK military courses emphasizing compliance with international humanitarian law,” but that “the Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong.”
“There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” the spokesperson said.