An Oxford student yelled “Slay the Jews” at Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, when he spoke at the Oxford Union on Monday night.
According to eyewitness reports, the student was removed by security after he shouted the Arabic phrase, “IdhbaH al-Yahud”, which Cherwell understands to mean “Slay the Jews”.
A separate protest outside the Union, organised by the University Palestinian Society, began at 6.15pm. Demonstrators chanted slogans in support of Palestine, which could be heard in the Union chamber throughout Mr Ayalon’s speech.
One of those involved, Alex Barnard, explained that he was protesting against Mr Ayalon as “a representative of the state of Israel”, based on his opposition to the country’s policies on Palestine.
The alleged racist remark has been reported to the Proctors’ Office, who stated that they had “spoken to the University Marshal who has in turn been in touch with a senior member of Thames Valley Police.”
They confirmed that “an investigation into [Monday] night’s events has already been started, including the allegations of racist abuse.”
Mr Ayalon translated the phrase at the time with obvious disgust, and later posted it on his Twitter page. Nobody in the audience contested his translation.
Ashley Perry, Mr Ayalon’s spokesman, confirmed that footage of the alleged racist incident had been requested by the British police. However, he said no decision had been made about whether Mr Ayalon would take legal action towards the protestors.
However, the student involved has disputed the accusations that have been made against him.
The student said, “My version went: ‘Khaybar, O Jews, we will win’. This is in classical, Qur’anic Arabic and I doubt that apart from picking up on the word ‘Jew’, that even the Arabic speakers in the room would have understood the phrase.
“As you can see, I made no reference to killing Jews. It carries absolutely no derogatory or secondary meanings.”
The student stated that he believed that ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ were interchangeable terms.
The student also commented that there was a chance they had been misunderstood, “There was a great deal of confusion and several people were shouting at the same time.
“I do acknowledge that people may have misheard me and assume that I uttered something else – namely to ‘slaughter the Jews’ which is something that I do not believe. I express the deepest regret if my remarks were misunderstood or misheard.”
However, the statement the student claims to have made can also be viewed as racist as it refers to a Jewish community in Khaybar being conquered by Muhammed in the 7th century. These Jews were later expelled by the Caliph Umar.
News of the incident quickly reached Israeli media. The Israeli TV channel, Channel 10 broadcast part of the footage containing the anti-Semitic comment on Tuesday night.
Thames Valley Police are also investigating claims that a pro-Palestinian protester was injured in a collision with a ministerial car.
The Oxford Student Stop the War Coalition claimed that Mr Ayalon’s security services, who had complained to the police that they were being harassed, “drove their car directly at one protester”.
They also claimed that the protester, Ashley Inglis, was “carr[ied] a hundred yards along the road before he jumped to safety, only narrowly escaping very serious injury.”
Reports of the incident vary, with some sources alleging that the protester was attempting to snap the number plate off the ministerial car, and prevent it from driving away.
However, Mr Inglis denies claims that he was attempting to damage the car. In a statement he said, “I was attempting to photograph the car when it drove into me and carried me along New Inn Hall Street for a hundred yards.”
Thames Valley Police spokesperson Danny Donovan said, “Thames Valley Police are investigating circumstances surrounding an incident that occurred in New Inn Hall St. This was after the event had already finished, and the minister had left.”
Slogans chanted outside by protesters as Ayalon spoke ranged from, “1-2-3-4/Occupation no more/5-6-7-8/Israel is an apartheid state”, to “from the river to the sea/Palestine will be free”.
Within the Chamber, tempers flared throughout Mr Ayalon’s speech on “The Middle East: Hopes and Challenges”, as protesters continually challenged what the Minister said.
The first interruption came only a few minutes into the speech. A woman stood up and read from the Goldstone Report, a UN report critical of Israel’s conduct during the recent Gaza war, to a mixed reaction from the crowd. Many in the audience were supportive of her, but others were critical.
One person shouted, “I didn’t come to hear you talk.”
Reacting to the interruption, Mr Ayalon criticised the protester for just reading out someone else’s work, saying “I’m not sure she even understood what she said.”
Other interruptions included a man holding a Palestinian flag shouting “You are a racist,” “You are a war criminal” and “You will be tried”, to applause from much of the crowd, before being ejected.
Ashley Inglis’ twin brother, Russell, quoted a question posed to Senator McCarthy, “have you left no sense of decency?” as he was removed from the chamber by security. He took the pole that separates the “ayes” and “nays” in the Union door with him.
“He is a representative of the state of Israel”
During the question and answer session that followed Mr Ayalon’s speech, one student, Hengemah Ziai, spent around ten minutes attempting to have a ‘dialogue’ with the Minister, who did respond to many of her questions.
She criticised him for attempting to duck Israel’s responsibility for problems in the Middle East, asserting that, according to the UN, Israel is occupying land that doesn’t belong to it.
Justifying her interruptions to applause from much of the crowd, she argued that “this is not a small academic debate about Plato, people are dying.”
After the speech, she told Cherwell that she felt “10 minutes was an insufficient amount of time to take Ayalon up on the lies he was feeding the audience.”
On the other side of the debate, one student stood up near the end of the talk, saying that he needed to shout to be heard, and apologised to Mr. Ayalon on behalf of the Oxford Union for the constant heckling throughout the evening.
The Union has issued a statement in which it “[apologises] to Mr Ayalon for the actions of its Members and [thanks] him for the professional way in which he handled the situation.”
Opinion after the talk was divided on what had occurred.
Rhea Wolfson, President of the Oxford Israeli Cultural Society, explained that she believes “it was the wrong way to go about the issue. Protesters had a fantastic opportunity for dialogue last night and wasted it by shouting at the speaker, reciting prepared monologues and one member even launched a personal attack on his political career.”
She added that this “did not allow Danny Ayalon to discuss the remedies or the future, only the past; this kind of ranting and anger will get us nowhere.”
On the shouting of “Slay the Jews,” she remarked that “This is a disgusting thing to have happened. This student was obviously not representing the majority of the protesters … [and] crossed lines that should not have been crossed.”
Hannah Massih, President of the University Palestine Society, also condemned the statement “Slay the Jews.” She said, “Oxford Students’ Palestine Society condemns racism in all its forms.”
However, she commented that, “We consider our protest to have been a massive success. Outside, over a hundred people joined together to oppose Mr Ayalon and his party, carrying banners condemning Israeli policy and chanting pro-Palestinian chants…we showed Mr Ayalon that he was not welcome in Oxford and we demonstrated our continuing solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”
One of those who spoke up during the talk, Nabeel Qureshi, explained his side of the story.
He said, “If a Holocaust denier came to the Union I would call him out on his lies rather than sit there treating him respectfully and letting him change history. Same principle.”
In reference to some of the more chaotic elements of the evening, one of those moderating the talk, explained that he found the whole thing “a little embarrassing”, that although he “understand[s there are] passionate opinions”, the behaviour of some of the more disruptive protesters “prevented” the evening from being a “forum for discussion”. He said the evening was “a sad day for the Oxford Union.”
“We consider our protest to have been a massive success”
Danny Ayalon represents Yisrael Beitenu, a nationalist party, and is a controversial figure even among supporters of Israel.
Though his talk was frequently interrupted, he managed to convey a combination of moderate and hardline views on the subject of the Middle East. He blamed Iran for “everything bad going on in the Middle East at the moment”; and claimed that instead of meeting the Israelis halfway on the subject of peace, Israel is giving 95% and Palestine 5%.
However, he also admitted that Israel has to make some concessions to the Palestinians. Arguing that “I do feel for the Palestinians”, he said that he blames successive Palestinian leaderships for their present plight.
His visit to the UK, where he also spoke at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, was notable given the reluctance in recent months of Israeli officials to come to UK.
After the Gaza war last year, warrants for the arrest of politicians involved under war crime legislation were issued.
