Israel An Apartheid State Committing Genocide In Palestine – Oxford Union
Oxford Union, on November 28, after an intense debate, declared Israel as an “apartheid state responsible for genocide”.
The Oxford Union is a student society located in Oxford, England, and is made up almost entirely of students at the prestigious Oxford University.
Oxford Union dates back to 1822 and is known for organizing high-level and highly important debates in which a wide range of scientists, thinkers, politicians, activists, and people of literature and art participated.
Times Of Israel, at the fiery debate in which the society’s president denounced Israel’s war on Gaza as a “holocaust”, the motion was carried with 278 in favour against 59.
The event took place under tight security, as protesters demonstrated outside the building.
The debate, which sparked widespread controversy, saw a debate between supporters of Palestinian rights, including American Jewish writer Norman Finkelstein, American Israeli activist and writer Miko Peled, Palestinian American writer Susan Abulhawa, and Palestinian activist Mohammed al-Kurd.
Framing the debate, Oxford University student Othman Muwafi said he was “putting the right names on the clear facts,” while asking, “How many bullets does it take to kill one family? 335, and Netanyahu was quoted as saying: Gaza is a city of evil; noting that 50 percent of Gaza’s population are children?”
The debate featured several prominent speakers on both sides of the topic, including pro-Israel advocates
including pro-Israel advocates Natasha Hausdorff, a British lawyer, Jonathan Sacerdoti, a British journalist who covers the UK and Europe for i24 News, as well as Arab Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad, and former Hamas member-turned Israeli spy Mosab Hassan Yousef.
Arguing against Israel were US political scientist and anti-Israel activist Norman Finkelstein, Israeli-American activist and author Miko Peled, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, and Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian writer and poet.
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According to Oxford University’s student newspaper, Cherwell, the debate featured intense heckling and argument, with one audience member calling Sacerdoti a “sick motherfucker” and a “genocidal maniac” while the journalist was giving his position.
Cherwell reported that Peled said during the debate, “What happened on October 7th was not terrorism — these were acts of heroism of a people who were oppressed,” and called for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.”
For her part, Abulhawa told the crowd that she “came to speak directly to Zionists: we let you into our homes when your own countries turned you away. You killed and robbed and burned and looted our lives, you carved out our hearts.”
The Palestinian poet El-Kurd argued that Zionism is “irredeemable and indefensible,” and said that if the union voted in favor of calling Israel an apartheid state committing genocide, “it means that this body is catching up to the moral clarity of the global majority. It is about time and about 70 years too late.”
Meanwhile, Haddad was kicked out of the chamber for lack of decorum after calling the audience “terrorist supporters” when they booed him during his argument. As he was escorted out, the Arab-Israeli activist put on a shirt with the face of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with the caption, “Your terrorist is dead.”
Pro-Israel speaker Hausdorff called the debate a “dark moment in the Oxford Union’s history,” and said that the accusation of genocide against Israel is a “slur being alleged against the real victims of genocide in this case.”
At the end of the debate, the union voted in favor of the resolution 278 to 59, officially labeling Israel as apartheid and genocidal.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
