Oxford, MINA – The Oxford Union debate club in the United Kingdom has declared that the Israeli “apartheid” regime is “responsible for the genocide” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime launched an offensive against the residents of Gaza following a retaliatory operation by Palestinian fighters.
Since that time, the regime has killed at least 44,363 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, and injured 105,070 others, forcing nearly the entire Palestinian population in Gaza to flee their homes.
The debate society, founded in 1823 in Oxford, England, voted on this motion following an intense debate between pro-Palestinian speakers and supporters of Israel.
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The Oxford Union held an unprecedented debate on the evening of Thursday, November 28, on the motion: “This House believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide.” The motion was passed with a majority vote of 278 in favor and 59 against.
A pro-Israel speaker, Yoseph Haddad, was even asked to leave the chamber for being disruptive after referring to the audience as “terrorist supporters” while being heckled during his speech.
Speakers supporting the motion included Union President Ebrahim Osman Mowafy, Israeli-American activist and writer Miko Peled, Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd, and prominent author Susan Abulhawa.
Peled described the October 7 operation as “heroic.” According to the Oxford University student newspaper, Cherwell, he called the Al-Aqsa Flood operation “an act of heroism by the oppressed.”
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Osman-Mowafy, who represented the esteemed American academic Norman Finkelstein, who was unable to attend, spoke about 19-year-old Shaban al-Daloum, who was burned alive in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza. He described this death as part of a “holocaust” being carried out by Israel against the people of Gaza. (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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