MORE than 100 prominent British Jews have formed a breakaway group in response to a perceived pro-Israel bias among the country's main Jewish organisations.

The group of British Jews yesterday declared independence from the country's Jewish establishment, arguing that it puts support for Israel above the human rights of Palestinians.

Independent Jewish Voices published an open letter calling for a freer debate about the Middle East within the Jewish community.

Among the more than 130 signatories are actors Stephen Fry and Mike Leigh, author Harold Pinter, novelist Jenny Diski and fashion designer Nicole Farhi, as well as leading academics such as Eric Hobsbawm and Susie Orbach. "We come together in the belief that the broad spectrum of opinion among the Jewish population of this country is not reflected by those institutions which claim authority to represent the Jewish community as a whole," the letter says.

Jewish leaders in Britain, it argues, "put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people" in conflict with Jewish principles of justice and compassion.

The statement does not name the institutions it is criticising. But one signatory, Brian Klug, an Oxford philosopher, singles out the Board of Deputies of British Jews for calling itself "the voice of British Jewry" while devoting "much of the time and resources of its international division to the defence of Israel".

Dr Klug also criticises Britain's chief rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, for telling a pro-Israeli rally in London last year: "Israel, you make us proud."

Dr Klug writes: "Others felt roughly the opposite emotion."

The emergence of the group, which calls itself a "network of individuals", comes at a time of ferment over attitudes towards Israel, stoked by the war in Lebanon and the bloodshed in the occupied territories.

The question of whether radical opposition to Israeli policies amounts to anti-Semitism is central to the debate.

A parallel struggle is under way in the US where the American Jewish Committee published an article accusing liberal Jews, such as the historian Tony Judt, of fuelling anti-Semitism by questioning Israel's right to exist.