At a movement for a vote of no confidence in opposition to Arwa Elrayess, the primary Palestinian president of the College of Oxford’s debating society, Oxford Union, she was accused by a 20-year-old scholar of contributing to “an environment of hostility and harassment”.
In a video of the discussion board final week on the prestigious college, which was shared with Al Jazeera, Elrayess is seen replying to Ben Ashworth, “Not simply in my profession throughout the union however in my existence as a Palestinian, there appears to all the time be this autopsy vilification of Palestinians.”
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The room was filled with onlookers as Elrayess, who grew to become the pinnacle of the Oxford Union late final yr, stood tall in a inexperienced sequinned gown.
“Palestinians, after they discuss, are for some cause a hazard. Our very existence is one thing that’s scary,” she added.
The movement was filed after screenshots of textual content messages from Elrayess had been quoted in retailers together with The Telegraph and the BBC as saying that the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023 was “proportional”.
The textual content additionally stated teams branded as terrorists had been usually later “lauded as heroes”.
Ashworth cited the Sunday Telegraph instantly in his accusation. The newspaper’s political editor, Camila Turner, whose father serves as chief government of UK Legal professionals for Israel, had carried the declare that Elrayess stated Hamas can be “lauded as heroes”.
However Elrayess didn’t make any assertion of help for Hamas.
9 months in the past – earlier than Elrayess was president – she was in a gaggle chat of scholars meant to debate politics.
Within the group chat, October 7 and Palestine – and broader conversations on resistance teams – had been mentioned.
“Analysing one thing shouldn’t be giving it ethical legitimacy,” she instructed Al Jazeera. “Although I described explicitly in all of the messages that I’m not describing this as authentic or morally justified, I’m simply offering evaluation; all of this was stripped away when it was reported in The Telegraph or the Day by day Information.”
The complete quote in query on the group chat learn: “Any resistance group will inevitably be deemed a terrorist organisation by the West till they obtain their liberation, by which era they’ll be lauded as heroes as historical past has traditionally confirmed.”
‘Completely misquoted’
The messages weren’t meant as commentary on Hamas particularly, she argued.
“It was totally misquoted; I consider it was totally intentional to border as having stated one thing that I merely didn’t say,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
To the Jewish Chronicle, although, Elrayess reiterated her place by saying, “I condemn Hamas’ concentrating on of harmless civilians, simply as I condemn the concentrating on of harmless civilians by the [Israeli army] or another actor.”
After refuting the allegation and misquotations, Ashworth is seen within the video yelling at Elrayess, asking whether or not she condemns Hamas once more.
Ashworth, who shouldn’t be Jewish, has confronted criticism for lately visiting Israel with the Pinsker Centre, a suppose tank previously generally known as the Pinsker Centre for Zionist Schooling.
The movement for a vote of no confidence overwhelmingly failed, receiving 126 votes, 116 of which had been on-line signatures, far beneath the 150 wanted to proceed to a ballot.
This isn’t the primary misinformation marketing campaign in opposition to Elrayess.
In October 2025, simply earlier than her election as president of the debating society, falsified minutes had been ratified by an unnamed member of the union, alleging that Elrayess “argues that alumni members shouldn’t be allowed to vote, reiterating her claims that they’re incapable of constructing a rational judgement”.
Elrayess believes that the minutes had been made up and unfold to “paint me as somebody who hates alumni of this establishment”.
After an inside disciplinary course of, the one that falsified the minutes was suspended from workplace and the minutes had been de-ratified.
Shortly after her win, opposition throughout the Union introduced ahead a variety of prices in opposition to Elrayess, starting from misuse of social media to antisemitism. In January, it was discovered that the costs had been un-evidenced. By this level, nonetheless, Elrayess had misplaced two months of her presidency.
Alongside this, an article was printed within the Oxford Commonplace alleging that she was associated to a frontrunner of Hamas who occurred to share the identical surname as her, and that she had created and shared a cartoon of herself stepping on a lizard and a hook-nosed anti-Semitic caricature to have a good time her victory.
The claims, once more, had been false. The cartoon linked to an nameless meme web page that Elrayess had nothing to do with, and she or he had no household ties to Hamas. The article had no writer attributed to it, and the Oxford Commonplace didn’t contact Elrayess or reply to her emails, fact-checking the article.
Inside days, Elrayess had emails from journalists at The Jerusalem Put up, Jewish Chronicle and The Telegraph, asking her to make clear her household affiliation with Hamas and her views of Jewish folks, stemming from the stark untruths shared within the anonymous Oxford Commonplace article.
The one trigger for the allegations, some have noticed, seemed to be Elrayess’s Palestinian identification.
A colleague and good friend of Elrayess, who wished to stay unnamed, described to Al Jazeera a way of misery amongst Elrayess and her mates.
“The extent of assaults that Arwa and her mates obtained was astounding,” he stated.
The Oxford Commonplace, which now not exists, deleted each the article and their web site altogether. However the rumours they started, with no info to again them up, have snowballed into nationwide information headlines of Oxford Union’s first Palestinian president being a supporter of Hamas and a proud anti-Semite.
Tweets by outstanding Zionist influencers like Eylon Levy, former spokesperson for Israel, sharing the lie that Elrayess is a Hamas heiress, with now-broken Oxford Commonplace hyperlinks and no factual corrections.
‘I’m a really proud Palestinian’
Elrayess’s dedication to debate and free speech has introduced controversy to her tenure. She invited outstanding Israel supporter Tommy Robinson to a debate, triggering widespread protest in Oxford, and has engaged with conservatives and Zionists in her union and her personal appointed committee.
Oliver Jones-Lyons, director of finance of the Oxford Union, works alongside Elrayess and describes himself as a “fairly public Zionist”.
Nonetheless, regardless of their diametric positions, Lyons-Jones doesn’t endorse the rising smear marketing campaign in opposition to Elrayess.
“I’ve by no means felt oppressed, abused or discouraged from sharing my views overtly, fairly the other the truth is,” stated Jones-Lyons in a press release to Al Jazeera. “Me and Arwa clearly vehemently disagree on a number of points; nonetheless, our conversations about points which can be deeply private to each of us have by no means as soon as been aggressive and have all the time been productive, the truth is I can definitely say Arwa has modified my thoughts on points I by no means thought I might.”
Oxford Union member Oliver Goldstein stated, “Personally, I like Arwa. I don’t agree with lots of her feedback, however do I really feel unsafe as a Jewish scholar on the Oxford Union? No … I don’t suppose she’s an anti-Semite.”
Regardless of the inundation of misinformation, Elrayess stays decided.
“My father is from Gaza,” she stated. “He would all the time inform me, ‘It doesn’t actually matter what you say or don’t say; folks will all the time discover a technique to spin it in such a method that you just turn into a goal, since you’re already a goal.”
She stated she lives by her father’s phrases.
“I’m not resigning from my place. They’ll throw 1,000 completely different letters in 1,000 completely different articles. I’m very vocal, and I’m a really proud Palestinian.”
