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UK court blocks gov't effort to cancel Palestinian student's visa

A UK court has overturned the Home Office's decision to revoke the visa of Palestinian student Dana Abuqamar, ruling the move violated her freedom of speech and human rights. Dana spoke to MEMO about her victory.

October 30, 2024 at 3:49 pm

A UK court today blocked a government effort to cancel the visa of Palestinian student Dana Abuqamar, Middle East Eye reported.

Abuqamar had her visa revoked by the UK Home Office and was labelled a “national security threat” because of her pro-Palestine activism.

However, at a Manchester court, Judge Melanie Plimmer said the Home Office had violated Abuqamar’s human rights and her ability to practise freedom of speech by revoking her student visa.

The judge added that Abuqamar “had no clear knowledge of the role of Hamas at that stage and certainly had no intention of conveying support for Hamas or the terrorist atrocities against civilians committed in the 7 October attack.”

Commenting on her legal victory, Abuqamar said “justice has prevailed” and she was happy with the result. “This case has reinforced Palestinians’ right to resist occupation in the domestic context; that the expression in support of that right cannot be conflated with support for terrorism; that there is no room for abuse of power by ministers and arbitrary decision-making to undermine the rule of law. I hope that this ruling inspires and strengthens supporters of the Palestinian movement to continue advocating against Israel’s flagrant violations of international law.”

In a statement the European Legal Support Centre said: “The Tribunal’s decision is a landmark ruling, rebuffing the British government’s relentless attempts to conflate solidarity with Palestine with ‘terrorism’ or ‘antisemitism’ and reaffirming the right to support Palestinian resistance under International Humanitarian Law. The decision was upheld despite a change in government, with the new Labour-appointed Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, refusing to reverse the initial punitive decision – illustrating how Labour has continued Tory policies that stifle advocacy and solidarity for Palestinian rights. ”

“Significantly, the Tribunal declared that Abu Qamar was ‘not an extremist’ and ruled that the Home Office had failed to demonstrate that Abu Qamar’s statements in support of Palestinian resistance made her presence in Britain ‘not conducive to the public good’,” it added.

Abuqamar, a dual Canadian- Jordanian citizen, was served with a letter by the UK Home Office revoking her student visa. The letter referenced an 8 October 2023 interview she did with Sky News at a rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza. She spoke in support of Palestinian resistance – which is legal under the UN human rights charter – however the Home Office deemed this to be support for Hamas.

READ: Israel’s UNRWA decision needs to be ‘reversed very quickly’, British Premier says