Controversial Oxford Union president said Hamas would be 'lauded as heroes'

Oxford Union's controversial president has said Hamas would be “lauded as heroes” in leaked WhatsApp messages.

Arwa Elrayess, the first Palestinian president of the prestigious debating society, has faced calls to resign after leaked messages revealed she described Hamas's actions on October 7 as "proportional".

She also suggested it was "quite rich" for people to express shock at attacks, given Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

The remarks were made in a private WhatsApp group of around 100 students preparing to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, the Telegraph has revealed.

The messages, which date from last September, have prompted calls for her resignation and for Oxford University to launch a formal investigation.

During a group discussion about the Israel-Gaza conflict, Ms Elrayess told incoming students she believed Hamas would ultimately be remembered as heroes, framing the comment as a historical observation rather than an endorsement.

She wrote the severity of resistance was "often proportional to the severity of oppression", adding that it was "quite rich to allow for decades of systematic oppression and massacres, only to act shocked when the resistance movement responds with proportional severity”.

When challenged by a fellow student who pointed out she appeared to be describing Hamas's actions as proportional, Ms Elrayess confirmed that she was.

She continued: "In fact, some would argue it's less than proportional. Have you seen what Israel has put Palestinians through for decades?"

When asked whether she was suggesting Hamas would be regarded as heroes, she made links with other groups such as the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the IRA, who had used “various forms of guerilla warfare and violence”, before adding “we’ll see how things unfold as time passes”.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism urged Oxford University to investigate, describing the messages as "absolutely sickening attempts to rationalise Hamas's barbaric terrorist atrocities on October 7 as proportionate”.

A spokesman said the attacks had taken place during a prolonged ceasefire and involved the rape, torture, murder and butchery of civilians.

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They added any attempt to excuse or explain them away should disqualify someone from holding not only the presidency of the Oxford Union but any position at all.

A spokesman for Oxford Students Against Discrimination said the group was "appalled" by the messages, which it said came at a time when Jewish students at Oxford had already faced an unprecedented rise in harassment, intimidation and fear.

The spokesman said Ms Elrayess was "actively contributing to a culture of fear and exclusion for Jewish members of the university" and called on her to resign immediately.

Ms Elrayess has previously come under criticism for inviting figures such as Tommy Robinson to talk at the prestigious debating society.

She told GB News: "I wanted to have a debate on the motion of whether any suspicions towards Islam were justified or whether communities like this are in fact being scapegoated.

"When we were thinking about this debate, we wanted to look for the figures who very much symbolised – if not the figureheads of – these views to challenge them directly.

"We couldn't think of anyone who is louder and more unashamed about those views than Tommy Robinson. The idea was — why not go directly for the person who is most vocal about these views and states them most confidently?"

The controversy is the latest to hit the Oxford Union, coming just months after its previous president was removed following comments that appeared to celebrate the shooting of right-wing US influencer Charlie Kirk.

Ms Elrayess said her comments had been written in an informal register and were not intended as a legal brief or public statement.

She said she welcomed the opportunity to clarify what she had and had not been arguing.

Further defending herself, she said the discussion centred on the theoretical concept of proportionality, and she had expressly stated in her messages that the comments were not an endorsement of violence.

She said she did not support or condone breaches of international law, whether carried out by Hamas or by Israel, including the deliberate targeting of civilians, hostage-taking or the use of famine as a weapon.

The debating society president said her comments should be understood in the context of the discussion, which was on the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in 2024.

She added that pro-Israeli commentators had sought to justify the conduct of the Israel Defence Forces by invoking the narrow legal concept of proportionality in the face of widespread criticism of civilian casualties caused by Israeli forces.

It emerged last week that the Oxford Union's summer ball, organised by Ms Elrayess, had partnered with the Palestinian Forum in Britain, a group long associated with Zaher Birawi, who has been described in Parliament as a "Hamas operative" and a "serious national security risk" to the UK.

Mr Birawi has previously denied any involvement in terrorism or any links to Hamas, describing such accusations as "baseless" before standing down as chairman of the Palestinian Forum in Britain in February.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has praised Ms Elrayess for championing open debate on human rights and equality, describing her election as a historic moment.

Oxford University said it had established policies and procedures for considering concerns raised by students or staff.

However, England's oldest university declined to comment on the individual case.