The President of the Oxford Union is facing calls to quit after saying Hamas will one day be ‘lauded as heroes’ and describing October 7 as ‘proportional’.
Arwa Elrayess, a PPE student at the prestigious university, made the remarks in a WhatsApp group of students who were about to take up their places to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
She described ‘decades’ of bad treatment of Palestinians by Israel, and claimed ‘you can’t be surprised’ by the events of October 7, responding to a fellow student to say it is arguable the attack was ‘less than proportional’ in response.
Ms Elrayess, who is Palestinian, is now under pressure to leave her role, with one student group saying her comments ‘actively [contribute] to a culture of fear and exclusion for Jewish members of the university’.
It comes just months after her predecessor George Abaraonye was ousted over comments he made in the wake of the assassination of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.
The comments from September last year were made to the group of around 100 incoming students, and saw Ms Elrayess challenged by a fellow member of the group that she was arguing the Hamas attack on October 7 was ‘proportional’.
She responded: ‘I am actually. In fact, some would argue it’s less than proportional. Have you seen what Israel has put Palestinians through decades??’
She added: ‘Proportional does not mean ‘right’ by the way. Just that you can’t be shocked that it happened.’
Arwa Elrayess, a PPE student at the prestigious university, made the remarks in a WhatsApp group of students who were about to take up their places to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics
It is the latest scandal to hit the Oxford Union after its previous president was ousted over comments he made regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk
In another exchange, Ms Elrayess claimed the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank, had been ‘bought over’ by ‘the West and Israelis’.
In a lengthy message she said: ‘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 proven).’
She went on to cite groups including the IRA and Palestine Liberation Organization, which she said ‘used various forms of guerrilla warfare and violence’.
She later added: ‘My point still stands: “terrorists” when it’s convenient for the West, and “liberators” when it’s no longer convenient’.
Ms Elrayess was challenged by some in the group over her comments, who said Hamas’ actions had been ‘too severe and bad’ to ever be branded liberators.
She replied: ‘I think the severity of resistance is often proportional to the severity of oppression.
‘It’d be laughable if any Palestinian group tried to gain their freedom through, for example, chaining themselves to the gates of the borders. There were various, more peaceful forms of resistance in the past that ended with nothing but massacres.
‘This is not to justify anything, but just to point out that it’s quite rich to allow for decades of systematic oppression and massacres, only to act shocked when the resistance movement responds with proportional severity’.
Elsewhere Ms Elrayess described her relatives’ experiences of conflict in Gaza, including the loss of family members and friends, adding: ‘We have had 1000 October 7ths.’
Other students in the chat supported Ms Elrayess’ statements, with one describing October 7th as ‘justified’.
A former Oxford Union committee member told the Daily Mail the comments are ‘sickening’, adding: ‘This isn’t student radicalism; it is the explicit normalisation of terror.’
‘Arwa Elrayess’ words are offensive, dangerous and wholly incompatible with the values of a free speech society,’ they said.
Organisation Oxford Students Against Discrimination said: ‘Oxford Students Against Discrimination is appalled by the messages attributed to Oxford Union President Arwa Elrayess.
‘At a time when Jewish students at Oxford have faced an unprecedented rise in harassment, intimidation, and fear, their Union president having privately described Hamas – the organisation responsible for the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust – as future heroes, and their actions as proportional.
‘This is not political debate. It is a failure of basic humanity, and a betrayal of every Jewish student who has had to navigate this university under her leadership.’
The spokesperson added: ‘We call for her to resign.’
Ms Elrayess has come under fire previously while in her role, most recently after she invited Tommy Robinson to debate Islam at the Union.
Under her leadership, the Union also invited left-wing political commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker to speak – but both have since had their visas to the UK rescinded on the basis their appearances would not be ‘conducive to public good’.
Ms Elrayess said: ‘My messages are in an informal register and not written as a legal brief or a public statement, but I welcome the opportunity to clarify the context, the factual basis, and what I was and was not arguing.
‘This was a discussion about proportionality. I do not support or condone breaches of international law – such as the deliberate targeting of civilians, hostage‑taking, the use of famine as a weapon, or any other grave breaches – whether carried out by Hamas or by Israel.
‘I expressly stated in my messages that my comments were not an endorsement of violence or an attempt to say it is “right” – this was a theoretical description of the structural context of the conflict, explaining why violence is tragically unsurprising given decades of occupation, blockade, rape, torture, displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide.’
She added that part of the discussion was related to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh – the Hamas political chief who was the head of its delegation in ceasefire negotiations – in Iran, in 2024, and some of her comments were made ‘in that context’.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said the messages were ‘absolutely sickening’.
They added: ‘The attacks came during a prolonged ceasefire and involved wanton rape and medieval torture, butchery and murder of civilians.
‘Any effort to excuse or explain it away should disqualify someone not only from being the President of the Oxford Union – one of the most prestigious positions at one of the UK’s most elite institutions – but also should render them unfit from holding any position at all.
‘The University of Oxford must take action to protect its students from extremists and the police should investigate some of these comments, which we are raising with our lawyers.’
Ms Elrayess and the Oxford Union have been contacted for further comment.
