Back in April of 2025 The University of Birmingham elected student Antonia Listrat to be the next head of the Guild of Students. She was democratically elected by the students to represent them to the University. Students who attend the university are already guaranteed to be a member of the student guild; their main goal is to help develop students’ skills and make sure that students are given the best experience while being at university.
As a full-time officer who is there to represent the university on a local level, she is supposed to have unbiased views on matters that do not relate to the university and represent all students. Since she won the election, it has become clear that she promoted her campaign on lies.
While interviewing with BBC Midlands, Antonia stated that she wants to provide a “safe and welcoming space for all our community.” This hasn’t been the case. Antonia herself was accused in May of 2024 of shouting “stop killing babies” in reference to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Since there is ample evidence suggesting that the IDF only targets combatants while Hamas uses their people’s children as human shields, this amounts to a blood libel where Israel is demonized.
The interview later goes into detail about Israel’s apparent genocide that is happening in Gaza. Antonia spreading this type of misinformation, directly leads people to be misinformed about the situation that is happening in the Middle East allowing individuals to only look at one side of the argument.
It makes sense then that she has been an activist for the Uob2 movement, a pro-Palestinian organisation that tries to provide the truth about what is going on with the Israel Hamas conflict, with them believing their actions are unlawful and are done in a safe way.
The Uob2 movement support those claims through different sorts of media are presented in what is going in Gaza as a Genocide with them encouraging students on campuses in Birmingham to speak out of the so called genocide that is going in the middle east, with them simply having a oncesided argument and having a bias view on what is going on in the middle east.
In the same interview she did with the BBC, she promoted pro-Palestinian marches onto campus. With marches taking place every Thursday for the last 1.5 years, she has now been using her position’s influence to encourage more students essentially harass their Pro-Israel peers and uncritically accept misinformation about the conflict. This is not representing all students when Jewish and Zionist students are being excluded.
It’s important to set the record straight. Not only is genocide a legal charge that no court of law has determined, but there is a lot of serious evidence suggesting the opposite: that the IDF has acted above and beyond the legal and moral requirements of warfare and whose intention has always been to protect their citizens and Palestinian civilians from the danger posed by Hamas. It is equally dishonest for people like Antonia to ignore the more likely instance of genocide that occured on October 7th, 2023 at the hands of Hamas and their supporters.
It is irresponsible for a person in Antonia’s position to behave the way she has, especially with how things are going across the country. Attacks against Zionists and Jews are increasing, simply shown through the attacks in Manchester last October during Yom Kippur. It’s hard not to see a connection between scores of student activists fundraising for these types of terror organisations on campus and the normalization of violence toward an easy scapegoat: their Jewish neighbors.
There have been around 28 Universities that have launched investigations over the Palestinian activism on UK campuses and Since October 7 2023 and a 117% increase in incidents of antisemitism and pro-Israel activism on campuses, with UK students feeling scared to speak out about their beliefs on campus. There has to be a way to promote Palestinian rights without supporting mass murderers.
These false claims about Israel promoted by students like Antonia have a clear impact on what happens to Jewish students. She needs to remember that her role is to represent the entire student body, not to promote her own misguided opinions about the world. Otherwise, pro-Palestinian groups will continue to promote a one-sided argument over the entire conflict. I’m not calling for them to be silenced, I’m calling for accountability and for the chance to publicly challenge their claims as any claims should. I’m not calling for them to be silent, I’m calling for accountability and for the chance to publicly apologize for their actions.
This article was originally published in The Times of Israel Blogs.
