Embattled Palestinian president of Oxford Union: ‘I’m not resigning’

Published 11 June 2026 · politics

Arwa Elrayess, the first Palestinian to lead the University of Oxford’s debating society, has been misquoted and troubled by falsehoods. At a motion for a

Arwa Elrayess, the first Palestinian to lead the University of Oxford’s debating society, has been misquoted and troubled by falsehoods. At a motion for a vote of no confidence against Arwa Elrayess, the first Palestinian president of the University of Oxford’s debating society, Oxford Union, she was accused by a 20-year-old student of contributing to “an atmosphere of hostility and harassment”. In a video of the forum last week at the prestigious university, which was shared with Al Jazeera, Elrayess is seen replying to Ben Ashworth, “Not just in my career within the union but in my existence as a Palestinian, there seems to always be this post-mortem vilification of Palestinians.” The room was full of onlookers as Elrayess, who became the head of the Oxford Union late last year, stood tall in a green sequinned dress. “Palestinians, when they talk, are for some reason a danger. Our very existence is something that is scary,” she added. The motion was filed after screenshots of text messages from Elrayess were quoted in outlets including The Telegraph and the BBC as saying that the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023 was “proportional”. The text also said groups branded as terrorists were often later “lauded as heroes”. Ashworth cited the Sunday Telegraph directly in his accusation. The newspaper’s political editor, Camila Turner, whose father serves as chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, had carried the claim that Elrayess said Hamas would be “lauded as heroes”. But Elrayess did not make any statement of support for Hamas. Nine months ago – before Elrayess was president – she was in a group chat of students meant to discuss politics. In the group chat, October 7 and Palestine – and broader conversations on resistance groups – were discussed. “Analysing something is not giving it moral legitimacy,” she told Al Jazeera. “Even though I described explicitly in all the messages that I’m not describing this as legitimate or morally justified, I’m just providing analysis; all of this was stripped away when it was reported in The Telegraph or the Daily News.” The full quote in question on the group chat read: “Any resistance group will inevitably be deemed a terrorist organisation by the West until they achieve their liberation, by which time they’ll be lauded as heroes as history has historically proven.” ‘Entirely misquoted’ The messages were not meant as commentary on Hamas specifically, she argued.

“It was entirely misquoted; I believe it was entirely intentional to frame as having said something that I simply did not say,” she told Al Jazeera. To the Jewish Chronicle, though, Elrayess reiterated her position by saying, “I condemn Hamas’ targeting of innocent civilians, just as I condemn the targeting of innocent civilians by the [Israeli army] or any other actor.” After refuting the allegation and misquotations, Ashworth is seen in the video yelling at Elrayess, asking whether she condemns Hamas again. Ashworth, who is not Jewish, has faced criticism for recently visiting Israel with the Pinsker Centre, a think tank formerly known as the Pinsker Centre for Zionist Education. The motion for a vote of no confidence overwhelmingly failed, receiving 126 votes, 116 of which were online signatures, far below the 150 needed to proceed to a poll. This is not the first misinformation campaign against Elrayess. In October 2025, just before her election as president of the debating society, falsified minutes were 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 are incapable of making a rational judgement”. Elrayess believes that the minutes were made up and spread to “paint me as someone who hates alumni of this institution”. After an internal disciplinary process, the person who falsified the minutes was suspended from office and the minutes were de-ratified. Shortly after her win, opposition within the Union brought forward a number of charges against Elrayess, ranging from misuse of social media to antisemitism. In January, it was found that the charges were un-evidenced. By this point, however, Elrayess had lost two months of her presidency. Alongside this, an article was published in the Oxford Standard alleging that she was related to a leader of Hamas who happened to share the same 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 celebrate her victory.