A debate at the Oxford Union descended into shouting and chaos as students passed a motion branding Israel an ‘apartheid state responsible for genocide’.
Pro-Israel speakers were loudly heckled by opponents while a Palestinian activist stormed out in protest at the presence of a former Hamas member turned Israeli informant on Thursday evening.
The contentious motion, ‘This house believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide,’ passed by 278 votes to 59 amid hostile exchanges within and outside the university chamber.
In a sign of the anti-Israeli intimidation scarring British universities, several Jewish students said they were too scared to attend, while others described on social media a ‘hostile and toxic atmosphere’.
Broadcaster Jonathan Sacerdoti, opening for the opposition, called the motion ‘an outrage’.
But during his speech he was heckled by an audience member calling him a ‘genocidal maniac’ and a ‘sick motherf***er’. The heckler was then ejected from the chamber.
The next morning Mr Sacerdoti wrote on X that ‘the evening was a shameful and grotesque mockery of educated debate, interrupted constantly by shrieking, threats and out- right hatred’.
Other speakers against the motion included Natasha Hausdorff, a British barrister from UK Lawyers for Israel, Mosab Hassan Yousef, a son of the co-founder of Hamas who later became an Israeli spy, and Arab-Israeli journalist Yoseph Haddad.
An Oxford Union debate on Israeli ‘genocide’ descended into chaos after speakers were heckled and the motion was called ‘an outrage’ (file photo)
A pro-Palestinian supporter holds up a placard reading ‘Oxford uni complicit in genocide’ at a rally held outside the Sheldonian in May
Protesters wave Palestinian flags outside the Oxford University examination schools in June
Meanwhile, former IDF commander and journalist Mr Haddad highlighted the co-existence of Jews, Christians, and Arabs within Israel before he was ejected from the chamber amid heckling from the crowd.
Mr Haddad posted on X: ‘Last night I asked the participants and pro-Palestine opponents during a debate at Oxford Union if they would have reported Hamas plans to authorities to prevent October 7 massacre; 75 per cent of the participants voted they would have chosen not to report Hamas plans to the authorities.’
Speaking in favour of the motion, Israeli-American activist Miko Peled branded the Hamas attack on October 7 last year as ‘an act of heroism’.
According to Oxford Student Newspaper Cherwell, he said: ‘What happened on October 7 was not terrorism — these were acts of heroism of a people who were oppressed.’
Advocating for a Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea’, he said: ‘Palestinians have been living in a concentration camp for seven decades’.
Another pro-motion speaker, Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian poet, called Zionism ‘irredeemable an indefensible’, while saying it ‘dishonours’ him to share a space with Mr Yousef.