The UK Residence Workplace denied Mandla Mandela’s visa to enter the UK on Friday, citing that his utility had been rejected due to his stance on the Israel-Palestine struggle and alleged “help for Hamas.” Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, has been a speaker at many pro-Palestine events within the UK.
Mandela was planning to return to the UK to talk at a number of occasions in help of Palestine in various cities akin to Manchester and Edinburgh, however was advised he wanted a visa to take action, and acquired the Residence Workplace letter on Thursday. The letter, dated 21 October, says:
Your presence within the UK has been assessed as not conducive for the general public good on the grounds that you’ve engaged in unacceptable habits. You may have made a number of statements which explicitly help Hamas and their terrorist violence, together with glorifying the Oct. 7 assault on Israel and their not too long ago deceased leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas is broadly designated as a terrorist group by a number of international locations, together with theUK, the place any members or “those that invite help for the group” might be jailed.
The Immigration Act 1971 units out the non-conducive grounds for denial of entry into the UK and descriptions that entry clearance or permission should be refused “the place the applicant’s presence within the UK will not be conducive to the general public good due to their conduct, character, associations or different causes…”
The letter highlights that the Residence Workplace considers Mandela’s presence to be a “menace” to communities within the UK, particularly Jewish communities, given his alleged help to Hamas and cited public curiosity and public security considerations. The letter included many examples of posts on Mandela’s Instagram account, together with captions and a photograph of Mandela and Haniyeh.
When chatting with theAssociated Press, Mandela criticized the choice as an assault on his freedom of expression and motion. Mandela holds a South African passport, which, in normal circumstances, permits journey to the UK with no visa. He mentioned on his Instagram account, in a put up together with pictures of the letter, that the letter “affirms [the UK’s] duplicity and help for, and complicity with genocide Israel.”
The Residence Workplace has not but commented.
Source / Picture: jurist.org