UK court rules in favor of woman whose visa was revoked after she spoke of ‘joy’ over Oct. 7

 A UK court ruled that the British government did not sufficiently demonstrate that the student visa of a Jordanian-Canadian citizen should be revoked after she spoke of her “pride” and “joy” over what had happened in Israel in an interview on October 8, 2023, The Guardian reports.

Dana Abu Qamar, who is of Palestinian origin and is head of the Friends of Palestine society at the University of Manchester, has claimed she was misinterpreted and was not speaking in support of the Hamas terror group.

The British government revoked the 20-year-old’s visa in December 2023, but did not show that her presence in the UK was “not conducive to public good,” the tribunal ruled.

According to The Guardian, the tribunal said the decision on Abu Qamar’s visa was a “disproportionate interference with her protected right to free speech.”

Additionally, the judgment said Abu Qamar was “not an extremist,” and that her use of the terms “actively resisting” and “broke free” would have been understood by listeners as a reference to lawful resistance, The Guardian says.

In an interview with Sky News at a Manchester rally on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas launched its devastating onslaught against Israel, Abu Qamar said: “For 16 years Gaza has been under blockade, and for the first time they are actively resisting, they are not on the defense, and this is truly a once in a lifetime experience.”

“And everyone is, we are both in fear, but also in fear of what, how Israel will retaliate and how we’ve seen it retaliate overnight, and the missiles that it’s launched and the attacks, but also we are full of pride. We are really, really full of joy of what happened,” she said.

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