Former Rhodes scholars have called on current students who complained about the programme’s links to Israel to quit.

The Rhodes Scholarship, founded by Cecil Rhodes, the diamond magnate, grants foreign students at Oxford University a £20,000 annual stipend in addition to covering their fees.

Scholars used a recent formal banquet to wear traditional Arabic headdresses and demand that the scholarship, accused of  having a “colonial legacy”, cut investments linked to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.

The precise links to Israel in the portfolio are not clear, but Rhodes Scholarship funds are handled by Barclays, which has been targeted by activists over its perceived links to the Middle Eastern state.