Madrid Pride organisers have barred a group of gay activists from Tel Aviv from the event because Tel Aviv’s mayor has not apologised for the raid on a humanitarian flotilla headed for Gaza during which nine people died.

Festival president, Antonio Poveda said: “We see nothing wrong with Israeli organisations that are clearly defending human rights, taking part privately in gay pride.”

But Eytan Schwartz, spokesman for Tel Aviv reacted by telling Spain’s El Mundo newspaper: “I also don’t recall Madrid’s gay organisations condemning any of the Palestinian terrorist attacks on cafes or buses.

Don’t they know that Islamist fundamentalists don’t just want to finish off Israel, but that they also believe homosexuals should ‘cure themselves or die?”