Tensions flared at the Oxford Union on Thursday evening, as a debate unraveled into turmoil. Pro-Israel speakers faced vocal interruptions, while a Hamas activist walked out in protest over the participation of a former IDF intelligence officer (the son of a Hamas leader).
In the end, the Oxford Union passed a contentious motion on Thursday night, declaring “This House Believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide.” The debate, held amid heightened security, drew protesters outside the Union’s historic buildings. The motion was carried by a decisive margin, with 278 votes in favor and 59 against.
Yoseph Haddad, 39, an Israeli-Arab Orthodox Christian, tweeted last Friday:
זה מה שעשיתי כשסילקו אותי מהאירוע העוין כשאני מוקף אנטי ישראלים בגלל שלא הייתי מוכן לקבל ביזוי של החטופים הישראלים!
עוד אספר בהרחבה על מה שהיה בעימות באוקספורד ועוד אעלה את הקטעים של הנאום שלי שם, אבל דבר אחד אני יכול לומר בוודאות- אוקספורד נכבשה בידי תומכי טרור. 90% מהמשתתפים… pic.twitter.com/pmHI3lLREJ
— יוסף חדאד – Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) November 29, 2024
I will tell you more about what happened in the Oxford debate and I will post excerpts from my speech there, but I can say one thing for sure – Oxford was taken over by supporters of terrorism. 90% of the participants are clearly anti-Israelis who admire Nasrallah and Sinwar, and from their perspective, Israel has no right to exist.
Extreme statements were made during the biased discussion, such as praising and glorifying the October 7 massacre and claiming that it was a heroic act by an oppressed people. When a speaker in the audience cried for the residents of Gaza in a forced and unbelievable manner, I pulled out a picture of the Hamas-kidnapped Muslims Yousef and Hamza al-Ziyadna and asked if she was crying for them, too. One of the participants in the audience took the picture and threw it on the floor, and others stepped on it.
During the debate I was cursed, booed, and threatened, but there was one thing I was not willing to accept: denigrating our hostages. I demanded that those participants be removed and were not willing to let the discussion continue, even when the anti-Israeli chairman, who had actually taken part in the confrontation himself, warned me and finally decided to have me removed from the hall.
In front of the hostile and terrorist-supporting audience, just before I left the hall, I did one last thing: I put over my formal tuxedo a T-shirt that I had brought with me with a picture of Nasrallah with a big X on it and the caption, “Your heroic terrorist is dead, we killed him.”
Outside the Oxford Union’s buildings, a group of about two dozen pro-Hamas demonstrators gathered on St Michael’s Street, their chants echoing into the chamber. Organized by Oxford Action for Palestine, the protest aimed to signal that “Zionists are not welcome in Oxford,” according to a statement by the group. One protester, speaking to the students’ newspaper Cherwell, explained that their presence served a dual purpose: to express solidarity with Hamas speakers and to oppose the Union’s decision to host “controversial” Israeli figures.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the terrorist organization Hamas’s founder who defected to become a spy for Israeli intelligence, told the audience, “I sentenced my father to death.” He then said, “Palestinians are the most pathetic people on planet Earth,” inciting many points of order suggesting he should be removed from the chamber. In response, Yousef said: “This House has been hijacked by Muslims.” He called “Palestinians” “a false identity” and said, “We (the Arabs – DI) will exist long after the Palestinian thugs who came to hijack our society.”
PA Arab poet Mohammed El-Kurd said: “If this motion passes today, 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.” He called Zionism “irredeemable and indefensible,” and referred to Yoseph Haddad’s work for the IDF, saying it “dishonors me to share a space with [Yoseph]” before walking out of the chamber.
When Haddad took the podium, he told the crowd: ‘‘If you are booing, I’m sorry to say it, but you are terrorist supporters.” He described Jews, Christians, and Arabs playing soccer together in Israel, how as an Arab-Israeli himself he gave commands to and was saved by Jewish soldiers, and the fact that an Arab heads the largest bank in Israel – all evidence against Israel being an apartheid state.
Yousef opened by referring to his work stopping Hamas suicide bombers despite being the son of the terrorist organization’s founder: “I sentenced my father to death”. He then turned to incendiary comments including “Palestinians are the most pathetic people on planet Earth”, which incited many Points of Orders over whether he should be removed from the chamber. In response, Yousef said: “This house has been hijacked by Muslims.” He called Palestinians “a false identity” and said that “we [Arabs] will exist long after the Palestinian thugs who came to hijack our society”
He ended, shouting: “You’re losing! You’re losing the Israeli-Arab war! You’re losing everything!” He was asked by the chair to leave, at which point he put on a T-shirt with a crossed-out picture of Hassan Nasrallah and the caption, “Your terrorist is dead – we did that.”
