A TOTAL of 20 students tried to encourage shoppers to boycott Plymouth's Marks and Spencer store yesterday.

The pro-Palestine students wanted to 'expose the company's links with the Israeli state' as they protested outside the Drake Circus store.

The demonstration was part of a national co-ordinated week of action among some universities in solidarity with 50 students in the West Bank who were allegedly arrested on February 18 after occupation forces reportedly rampaged through the village of Jayyous conducting violent house to house raids and carrying out mass arrests.

A spokesman for the Plymouth students said: "The university occupation was not merely one isolated event, but rather the beginning of a great deal of student activism in Plymouth."

No-one from the city's Marks and Spender store was available for comment.