A former student at the University of Manchester, Ms Dana Abuqamar has won a court appeal against the UK Home Office after she faced deportation, following the revocation of her student visa.
Her student visa was revoked in December 2023 after comments she had made on a televised interview on Sky News, in reference to the events of October 7 in Israel.
Ms Abuqamar, a UoM graduate in Law said this during the interview:
“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”.
She also said: “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 later stated on BBC North West Tonight that she was taken out of context, and she said in her witness statement:
“At that time, my genuine belief and understanding of what had happened on 7 October was that Palestinians had exercised their lawful right to resist an illegal and brutal occupation. I understood that force had been used but I believed that the force used had been in compliance with IHL. I was very impassioned during the speech because, as I explain further below, I believed that we were at a turning point in the history of Palestine with Palestinian people having risen up against the Israeli oppressor in lawful resistance to the illegal occupation”.
Ms Abuqamar faced a two day tribunal at the Manchester Tribunal Court on September 26 and 27, in which she, as the appellant, presented her case to 2 judges.
Judge Melanie Plimmer, who delivered the judgement said that the Home Office failed to prove why her presence in the country “was not conducive” to the public good.
In addition, the judgement also notes that Ms Dana Abuqmar “is not an extremist”, and that her description of Israel as an “apartheid state”, and references to Palestinians “actively resisting” fell in line with the views of human rights organisations, and internationally accepted definitions of lawful resistance.
The judge noted: “She made ill-timed and insensitive statements she believed to be in support of Palestinian lawful resistance and not Hamas’ actions in committing atrocities against Israeli citizens”.
Based on this, the court felt that expressing support for Palestinian resistance was therefore protected under Freedom of Expression (Article 10) of the European Court of Human Rights. Therefore, the Home Office’s attempt to revoke her visa on these grounds was a violation of her fundamental rights.
Ms Abuqamar said after the verdict:
“After a year-long legal battle against state repression and disregard of human rights, specifically targeted against Pro-Palestinians, justice has prevailed.
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.”
Court proceedings revealed that Robert Jenrick, who was the Secretary of State for Immigration at the time personally intervened to see if the government could revoke the visa of Ms Dana Abuqamar.
Jenrick was in the last two of the Conservative Party leadership contest, before losing to Kemi Badenoch MP.
The comments made by Ms Abuqamar drew criticism from some Conservative MPs, with Chris Philip MP saying on X, (formerly known as Twitter) that “I’m appalled that anyone holds these repugnant views“.
Ms Abuqamar was the President of the Manchester Friends of Palestine, Vice-President of the University of Manchester Pro-Bono Society, as well as being the Diversity & Careers Officer of the University of Manchester Bar and Advocacy Society.
