Oxford Debate Exemplified Bias

On Thursday, the Oxford Union voted on a controversial motion “This House Believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide”, with 278 votes in favour and 59 votes against – a very significant majority.

However, the speakers who opposed the motion faced considerable difficulties. First was a pro-Palestine group who chanted so loudly outside that they could be heard in the debating chamber, protesting against the Union platforming of Zionist speakers.

Second, the audience were predominantly anti-Zionist, partly because some Jewish students felt too intimidated to attend. And third, the motion was proposed by the Union’s president himself – the very opposite of a neutral, unbiased stance.

One of the team speaking in favour of the motion went as far as to make the ludicrous claim that what happened on 7th October 2023 was not terrorism, instead describing Hamas’ behaviour as “acts of heroism of a people who were oppressed.”

When opening the opposition to the motion, Jonathan Sacerdoti faced a lot of heckling leading to multiple pauses while order was restored. Some of the heckling was extremely abusive. He has posted a recording of his speech on YouTube.

Later on, the booing of the audience when Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad spoke against the motion provoked him to call the audience “terrorist supporters,” and he was thrown out of the debate as a result.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as the ‘Son of Hamas’, spoke about his work stopping terrorist suicide bombers. But he also called Palestinians “the most pathetic people on planet Earth” and was almost evicted from the chamber, later saying “this House has been hijacked by Muslims.”

Natasha Hausdorff rounded-off the speeches against the motion calling the debate a “dark moment in the Oxford Union’s history,” and stating that the accusation of genocide against Israel is a “slur being alleged against the real victims of genocide in this case.”

On Friday, Jonathan Sacerdoti spoke to GB News about the debate: