The UK government has revoked the student visa of a Palestinian student who lost relatives in Gaza after she spoke at a demonstration at the University of Manchester.
Dana Abuqamar, a law student who heads the Friends of Palestine Society at the University of Manchester, said the UK government revoked her visa on “national security” grounds, after claiming she was a risk to public safety.
“The claim they are making is baseless and violates my rights as a resident here in the UK. My legal team has lodged a human rights appeal against this decision to revoke my student visa in my last and final year as a law student,” Abuqamar said, speaking to Al Jazeera English, confirming that her visa had been revoked.
Last year, Abuqamar revealed that she had lost at least 15 relatives in Gaza after the Israeli army bombed a three-storey building in the besieged enclave.
But in a response to her visa application, the Home Office told Ashkar that it had been denied on the grounds that granting it would “harm the public interest”, without giving any further reasons or explanation.
Last year, Abuqamar faced criticism for comments she made at a pro-Palestine rally where she said, "We are full of pride, we are really, full of joy at what has happened”, following the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
Yeah imma need to see the words in the speech surrounding that sentence before I can draw any conclusions. That could be taken wildly out of context for all we’re presented with here.
Even in a worst case scenario, why now and not last year?
So she expressed an ugly emotion. Is the UK going after people who celebrate Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians? A US politician called for Gaza to be nuked. It’s reprehensible, but free speech gives him the right to say stupid and even evil things with out fear of government persecution. There is a mutual hatred between many Israelis and Palestinians, but the hammer only comes down when Palestinians give voice to that hatred. Israelis and their partisans say whatever they want without consequence. And good. Free speech. But get rid of the double standard.
Free speech is not without limits in the U.K.
I think someone supporting terrorist atrocities is lucky to get away with just losing a visa.
Except if you advocate for literal Genocide that’s fine of course. In fact you can give weapons to the people committing Genocide.
You can walk around with Genocidal I <3 israel banners proudly advocating for Nazism.
Only the people resisting cannot be advocated for.
