Heavily armed Metropolitan police threw Jewish activists out of an event hosted by a Labour MP at Parliament this week after they asked 'disruptive questions', MailOnline can reveal.

Mark Hendrick, MP for Preston, chaired the pro-Palestinian event which was organised by the controversial Palestine Return Centre (PRC). The group has been accused of links with Hamas, though a spokesman denied this.

One of the speakers at Tuesday's event – which was held to discussIsraeli conduct in Jerusalem – was Kamal Hawwash of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who used his speech to accuse Israel of being 'an expert at inciting hatred'.

At a previous Labour event, he said he considered a man who knifed two Israeli men to death, and injured a woman and toddler, a 'martyr' carrying out an 'act of revenge'. If people found his actions 'unacceptable', he said, 'that's up to them'.

The Jewish activists listened quietly to the speeches but then strongly challenged the presentations during the question-and-answer session. Mr Hendrick summoned police armed with machine guns to eject them, leaving them 'shaken and upset'.

It comes as MailOnline has learnt that Labour Against Anti-Semitism has reported at least 500 cases to party officials since Christmas – an average of 125 a month –raising questions about anti-Semitism in the party weeks before the election.

Labour MP Mark Hendrick directs armed officers towards Jewish audience members, left, and the policeman approaches to throw the Jewish activists out, right

Mandy Blumenthal, 52, one of the Jewish activists thrown out of the event by armed police

Kamal Hawwash, second from left, who has called a murderer a 'martyr', sits beside Labour MP Mark Hendrick, third from left, and Penny Green, who has suggested Britain bomb Israel, right

Titled 'The Question of Jerusalem: Occupation, Discrimination and Displacement', the event offered Palestinian perspectives on the conduct of Israel in the city. No pro-Israeli speakers were on the panel.

In a recording of the question-and-answer session, passed to MailOnline, one Jewish contributor can be heard saying: ’What I find very concerning is the bias of a panel in the House of Commons.

'It's particularly sickening that in half an hour we didn't hear one reference to [Israel's] safety and security.'

This Labour MP wanted it to be an echo chamber, not a debating chamber Mandy Blumenthal, Jewish activist

Another added: 'Hamas is a terrorist organisation that murders people in the same way that innocents were murdered outside our houses of Parliament here.'

Mr Hendrick MP responded to the first questioner: ‘This is a Palestinian Return Centre meeting. It is not supposed to be a cross-section of views.’

There followed a heated exchange, during which the Labour MP accused the activists of being disruptive.

Mobile phone footage obtained by MailOnline shows Mr Hendrick MP demanding that armed officers ‘take them out of here’, while a Jewish audience member protests, ‘I asked a question, I didn't say anything wrong’.

Four Jewish activists were thrown out of Portcullis House by seven officers armed with machine guns, who then took their details before releasing them without charge. The activists told MailOnline they were left 'shaken and upset'.

'I was thinking, oh my God, I feel it's really wrong to be told to leave for just giving my opinions,' said Mandy Blumenthal, 52, a member of West Midlands Friends of Israel. 'But I saw a policeman with a machine gun and I didn't want to argue.'

She added: 'The House of Commons is supposed to be the heart of free speech. But this Labour MP wanted it to be an echo chamber, not a debating chamber.'

Kamal Hawwash, who has called a murderer a 'martyr' and said his acts of killing two men, injuring a woman and shooting a toddler were not terrorism but 'revenge'

Mark Hendrick, the Labour MP for Preston, chairs the controversial event at Parliament

Another activist, Jonathan Hoffman, said: 'The evening was peppered with false facts, innuendo and downright lies. Parliamentary facilities were being used to create a platform for hate and anti-Semitism.’

They came intentionally to make trouble PRC Spokesman

A spokesman for the PRC said: 'We have always denied having a connection with Hamas. We have met with them, but we meet all Palestinian stakeholders. We do not condone violence and anti-Semitism.

'These four activists have been going to every single meeting, always causing disruption, barring civilised debate and discussion. They came intentionally to make trouble. They coordinated their shouting and disruptive questions together.'

He added that some of the Jewish activists were taking pictures and video footage inside the venue, which was against Parliamentary rules.

Penny Green, another speaker at the event in Parliament on Tuesday

Penny Green's tweet that was perceived by some to be hostile to Israel

After the incident, a spokesman for Labour Against Anti-Semitism, which reports instances of anti-Semitism in the party, told MailOnline:

‘We have collected huge amounts of evidence of a deep-rooted problem with anti-Semitism within the hard Left of Labour. Across social media, we are seeing again and again the same recurring anti-Semitic tropes and instances of outright hate speech.

‘We do wonder if complacency is actually evidence of complicity.’

I regret hosting the meeting because it turned out the way it did Mark Hendrick MP

When questioned by MailOnline, Mr Hendrick MP said: 'I didn't know the views of the [pro-Palestinian] speakers when I agreed they could speak. I was not aware of the comments they had made in the past.

'The Palestine Return Centre approached me and asked me to host the meeting, and I agreed. I was under the impression the speakers were respected academics.

'I was aware of the allegations that the PRC was linked to Hamas, but the organisation has been recognised by the United Nations as doing a lot of good work.

'I regret hosting the meeting because it turned out the way it did.'

When asked whether he regretted working with the PRC, he said: 'Don't put words into my mouth. Those people were being deliberately disruptive, asking disruptive questions.'

Mr Hawwash, a British-Palestinian engineer who has referred to a murderer as a 'martyr' carrying out an act of 'revenge', was denied entry into Israel over Easter and was unable to see his family as a result.

He told MailOnline he does not condone terrorism and that 'killing people will never be the way forward for peace'.