[IsraelTimes] The exclusive Oxford Union society, which has hosted US presidents, celebrities and neo-Nazis, again courts controversy this week; its track record on Israel isn’t friendly.
The Union has a track record when it comes to contentious debates on Israel. In 1962, for instance, it debated whether “The Creation of the State of Israel is One of the Mistakes of the Century.” Decades later, the students were still debating whether, as a 2008 motion put it, “This house believes that the State of Israel has a right to exist.”
Oxford University itself is currently in the throes of an election for its new chancellor, with the former Labour cabinet minister Peter Mandelson and former Conservative foreign secretary William Hague the front-runners. Although now largely a symbolic role, the post stretches back at least 800 years and the person who fills it is picked by over 30,000 students, staff and alumni. Both Mandelson (whose father was Jewish) and Hague are strong opponents of antisemitism and supporters of Israel.
Speaking to Channel 4 News last week, Hague said that students at university should “debate the great issues of the time” and “listen to points of view that make you uncomfortable.” When questioned, however, he said that the use of the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free” in a speech was not a legitimate expression and was antisemitic. “You have to allow, wherever you can, freedom of speech and expression,” Hague, now a member of the House of Lords, said. “Sometimes you have to be generous with those limits, but not practicing or advocating violence.”
The political temperature on British campuses concerning Israel is already high. This week’s Oxford Union debate on the Jewish state seems designed to spark the kind of furor in which, history suggests, the exclusive debating club revels. 
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