PALESTINIANS cancelled a series of engagements with visiting London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday after he called boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel “completely crazy.”

Mr Johnson had been set to meet young entrepreneurs and businesswomen, but the groups refused to talk to a man who failed “to acknowledge our very existence as Palestinians.”

The Tory MP is on a “diplomatic” tour of Israel and the Occupied Territories, where he met Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah.

In other remarks made earlier this week, Mr Johnson called supporters of the BDS movement “a bunch of corduroy-jacketed lefty academics.”

The words did not go down well at the Sharek Youth Forum, which cancelled its appointment with Tory leadership hopeful, declining to give him a platform.

“Following Johnson’s inaccurate, misinformed and disrespectful statement, it is our conclusion, supported by the Palestinian youth that we represent, that he consciously denies the reality of the occupation that continues to oppress them and all Palestinians,” the forum said in a statement.

“As Palestinians and supporters of BDS, we cannot in good conscience host Johnson.”

Mr Johnson did not retract or apologise his words.

“I think that some people have obviously taken remarks I made about the boycott — which is after all British government policy — they’ve taken offence at that and that’s been very much whipped up on social media.”

He claimed that cancellations were officially made due to security threats after the Palestinian authorities warned about safety.

“Johnson’s comments on BDS revealed a fundamental failure to understand Israel’s occupation and the effect of its oppression on Palestinians,” Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Sarah Colborne told the Star.

“His dismissal of BDS was effectively a dismissal of the Palestinian people, who have called on the international community to employ BDS as a means to end their subjugation.

“It shouldn’t really come as a surprise to him, then, that he finds himself unwelcome in Palestine.”

Her words were echoed by War on Want security campaigner Ryvka Barnard, who asked: “Is it any wonder Palestinians have denied Boris Johnson a platform, when he continues to deny the brutality of Israeli apartheid and the global movement for Palestinian rights?”