It was an unlikely confrontation: seven Hong Kong students and the former head of what is considered the most secretive of secret services in the world, the Mossad of Israel.
Efraim Halevy (above), who led the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations - to give the Mossad its English name - between 1998 and 2002, was delivering a talk at Lingnan University in Tuen Mun.
As his address last week, entitled 'Non-State Actors and Intelligence Services - their Pivotal Role in the 21st Century', neared its end, a group of students in the lecture hall audience silently held up placards spelling out the message 'God would not join the military'.
The students, mostly from the university's cultural studies department, were referring to what they see as a litany of unjustified violent action by Israel against Palestinians. In particular they were angry at Israel's blockade of Gaza and the attack on a Turkish aid flotilla by the Israeli Defence Force in May which left nine activists dead and dozens wounded, including seven Israeli commandos.
They also accused Halevy, 75 - who restated his belief in talking to Israel's sworn enemy, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas - of supporting the targeted assassinations of that group's senior leaders.
The seasoned spy-chief-turned-ambassador quickly slapped the students down, blaming erroneous media reports, before going on to describe Israel as 'indestructible' because it has 'so many means of defending itself at its disposal'.
