The EXTRAORDINARY WIN of Dana Abu Qamar

The Palestinian student the British State tried to crush

Photo by Nancy Hughes on Unsplash

Dana Abu Qamar is a Palestinian Manchester University student. Dana has to date, lost 22 of her family members in the genocide in Gaza. Her grandparents were also ethnically cleansed from their land during the Nakba.

On 1 December, the government revoked her visa on the assertion that her presence in the UK was “not conducive to the public good,” after her statements in a Sky News interview on Oct 8th. Here is what she said:

“For 16 years Gaza has been under blockade, and for the first time they are actively resisting, they are not on the defence, 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.”

Remember, we are in Britain, and words supporting Palestinian rights and calling for the end of the genocide against them can get you in serious trouble. They can also make David Lammy - Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) and recipient of tens of thousands of pounds pro-Israeli lobby money - very cross for ‘undermining’ the word genocide because he claims that it is only reserved for times when millions of people have died. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian deaths are not enough for LFI David Lammy, because his mates are the ones genociding. The UK however, does officially recognise the Srebrenica genocide (8,000 victims) and the Yazidi genocide (5,000 victims) - both victims at the time of the UK’s ‘enemies.’

What LFI David Lammy is really saying, is that Palestinian lives cannot be counted in the same way as other human lives as they are not worth the same. In other words, LFI David Lammy is proud and loud saying that Palestinian lives are inferior. LFI Mr Lammy exposed his vile and racist sentiments openly in Parliament and as such, his comments were fully protected by Parliamentary privilege.

(LFI by the way, has deleted its ‘LFI Parliamentary Supporters’ tab from its website so you can no longer see if your MP is supporting them. This was removed just before the general election. Nothing to see here. Literally.)

I digress.

In Dana’s case, Immigration and Communities Minister Robert Jenrick - Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), recipient of pro-Israeli lobby money and who has travelled to Israel with CFI and on the Zionist coin, including during this active genocide in Palestine - personally got involved. The Guardian reported that CFI Robert Jenrick’s team wrote to Home Office officials:

According to disclosed emails from October, a member of Jenrick’s team wrote to Home Office officials saying the minister was interested in “finding out about Dana Abuqamar” and to inquire whether it would be “possible to revoke her student visa”, the Guardian understands.

Of course, for a CFI and receiver of donations from an Israeli billionaire who ships arms to Israel, CFI Robert Jenrick’s personal and arbitrary decision to deport a Palestinian student for speaking out against Israel’s unlawful occupation was a horrific abuse of power, with the clear intention to suppress free speech and completely legal - (and justified) - criticism of Israel.

Despite this, Home Secretary LFI Yvette Cooper and recipient of pro-Israeli lobby money, refused to reverse the outrageous decision made by CFI Robert Jenrick.

(I hope you are all appreciating my new nomenclature for MPs, btw. I think it’s important to know their allegiances).

Dana Abu Qamar appealed the decision by the Home Office and won, the Immigration Tribunal ruling that the Home Office decision was a ‘disproportionate interference with her protected right to free speech’ under the European Convention on Human Rights. Fortunately in the UK, there are still some judges who are keeping to their oath of being fair and just. Judge Melaine Plinner emphasised that:

“…Abu Qamar "is not an extremist" and added that she "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".

The judgment also stated:

…her language of “actively resisting” and “broke free” would be recognised by informed observers as relating to lawful acts of Palestinian resistance.

But here is where the judgment is a spectacular win for the anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian rights movement because:

Plimmer accepted Abuqamar's testimony that she did not support atrocities against Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 and that her viewpoint is rooted in a belief "that Palestinians should seek their rights in a lawful and proportionate way and any resistance on their part should be grounded in law".

“There is a clearly recognised and fundamental distinction between supporting the Palestinian cause and supporting Hamas and their actions,” the judgment said. “Nowhere does the appellant express support for Hamas specifically, or their actions.”

It is now ruled in a tribunal that there IS a difference. The right to resist an occupying power as an occupied people is rooted in international law, and it is recognised in international law that this right applies to the Palestinians and specifically so.

In other words, Judge Plimmer’s rational judgment has stopped the conflation of the two causes and succinctly destroys the smear that by supporting the lawful cause of Palestinian resistance, a person is supporting Hamas.

This judgment follows the brilliant win by David Miller against the termination of his employment from the University of Bristol. David Miller’s resistance to Bristol University’s outrageous behaviour set a vital precedent and the Employment Tribunal found in favour of him, ruling that his anti-Zionist beliefs were a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. That means he is allowed to have them, and he is not allowed to be discriminated against because of them.

Like David Miller’s fight for justice and resistance to oppression from public bodies, the judgment this week set a precedent in fighting back the smears of Zionist apologists.

And for that we thank Palestinian Dana Abu Qamar, who lawfully resisted the attempts of the British state led by LFI Keir Starmer - receiver of at least £50,000 pro-Israeli lobby money - to deny us our human rights, and won.