Palestinian student who said she was ‘full of pride’ at Hamas October 7 attack has visa revoked
17 May 2024, 08:06 | Updated: 17 May 2024, 08:40
A Palestinian student who said she was “full of pride” at Hamas for carrying out October 7 has said she has had her visa revoked.
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Dana Abuqamar, 19, was filmed at a protest one day after the attack describing how she was “full of joy” and “proud that Palestinian resistance has come to this point.”
The Manchester University law student released a video this week saying that her “words were taken out of context.”
She said that the Home Office has rescinded her student visa citing reasons of “public safety.”
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She also said she plans to appeal the decision.
“My words were taken out of context and they were framed as me supporting harm to innocent civilians, which is completely false and completely untrue,” she told the Middle East Eye.
“The UK Home Office decided to revoke my student visa following public statements supporting the Palestinian right to exercise under international law to resist oppression and break through the siege that was illegally placed on Gaza for over 16 years.
“It's an outrageous claim that the Home Office is making by deeming me a national security threat. “
She told Al Jazeera: “Essentially the Home Office claims that my presence in the UK threatens national security; they have said that the statements that I've made support some sort of extremist views.
“Keep in mind, I am a 19-year-old law student – all I have done in life is go to school and receive an education and advocate for social justice.”
She called the decision “completely baseless.”
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
She accused officials of “oppression” adding that she now feels freedom of expression does “not apply to ethnic minorities, particularly Muslims and Palestinians like myself”.
During the October 8 protest she was interviewed and told Sky News: “We are full of pride. We are really, really full of joy (at) what has happened.... We are proud that Palestinian resistance has come to this point.”
She later told the BBC that her comments had been “misrepresented” adding: “The death of any innocent civilian should not be condoned ever and we don't condone it at all.”
