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my last and final year as a law student,” Abuqamar said, speaking to Al Jazeera English, confirming that her visa had been revoked.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.
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.
Don’t be silly, nobody is taking away UK government officials’ visas.
I see what you did there, good one. But I meant these ones, these acts she’s celebrating: https://thisishamas.com
And they are rightfully designated a terrorist organisation in the U.K.
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.
There’s no genocide