Oxford Union president vows to platform Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur in defiance of UK ban
Oxford Union president vows to platform Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur in defiance of UK ban
The Oxford Union, former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once proclaimed, is “the last bastion of free speech in the western world.”
That dramatic assertion has often been questioned, but today Macmillan’s quote is proudly displayed outside the prestigious debating society’s bar.
The president of the Oxford Union this term, Arwa Elrayess, appears determined to live up to the claim.
She has vowed to press ahead in allowing American political commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker to address the union over livestream after they were banned from entering Britain.
Elrayess told Middle East Eye on Monday morning that “we will not allow this event to be shut down”, issuing a serious rebuke to the British government.
Now MEE understands the event is set to proceed, with Uygur and Piker addressing Oxford students over livestream this Saturday 6 June.
On Monday evening, Elrayess launched a passionate attack on the British government’s decision to bar their entry, saying: “The Oxford Union was founded on one principle: that ideas are challenged through debate, not silenced by decree.
“We have never turned a speaker away because of their political beliefs nor have we sought a permission slip from the state. We will not start now.”
Piker and Uygur were set to visit Britain this week to speak at the union and at the SXSW London festival.
Piker visited the union last year. He wrote on Monday that he delivered a speech there “about the dangers of conflating judaism and zionism & how this foments antisemitism”.
The Times reported that UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood cancelled Uygur’s electronic travel authorisation (ETA) after determining that his presence in Britain would not be “conducive to the public good”.
Uygur posted on X that the British government said “that my charge that Israel controls the American government through donations to 94% of Congress, while factual, is antisemitic nonetheless. Don’t know if facts will soon be banned in Britain.
“I didn’t get banned for criticizing the UK, but for criticizing Israel. They broke the irony record by saying it was because I said Israel might control other governments. I wonder if they’re going to ban themselves.”
‘Free speech does not require a visa’
Elrayess vowed that the union event “will not be cancelled”.
She added, “The Union will ensure this discussion takes place. Free speech does not require a visa.”
The Oxford Union has recently come under fire for inviting far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to speak at a debate on Islam.
Elrayess, who is Palestinian, said she was committed to free speech partially because of her experience of seeing pro-Palestinian arguments being censored.
Elrayess told MEE the union is in its essence a “free speech society”, a member’s club devoted to the principle of debate.
It was founded in 1823 after a secret meeting of students who wanted to rebel against the university’s prevailing censorship.
In 1933 the union passed the motion “This House would not in any circumstances fight for King and Country”, prompting Sir Winston Churchill to condemn the union as “abject, squalid, shameless” and “nauseating”.
At a legendary 1964 debate, civil rights icon Malcolm X made the case for armed resistance in support of the motion “This House believes extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
OJ Simpson made global headlines when he addressed the union shortly after being acquitted of murder, and the British government banned the broadcast of an appearance by Sinn Fein politician Gerry Adams.
In 2024 the society was widely condemned in the right-wing press after voting resoundingly to declare Israel an “apartheid state responsible for genocide”.
The ban on Piker and Uygur has this week attracted criticism from prominent British politicians, including Green Party leader Zack Polanski and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Polanski claimed the Labour government was “doing everything possible to silence criticism of the Israeli government”.
Meanwhile Corbyn denounced the move as “an attack on the freedom to criticise Israel, as well as the UK government’s own complicity in genocide”.
المصدر: Middle East Eye
