Suella Braverman Blocked Palestinian Scholar's Refugee Visa

Proud Zionist, Suella Braverman reportedly personally blocked Palestinian scholar and refugee, Amena El Ashkar's Visa to enter into the UK.

We keep hearing from pro-Israel supporters as to why Palestinians don’t just leave their homes in Gaza or the West Bank and go to other countries, specifically Arab countries. Exactly which Arab nation is free of the West meddling in their affairs? Are Palestinian refugees able to build lives just like Europeans or North Americans?

Amena El Ashkar, born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, successfully applied for a PhD programme in 2022 after receiving a Chevening Scholarship in 2019. The latter allowed her to complete a master's degree in Israeli studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

After finishing her Master’s degree, she went back to Lebanon and secured a scholarship to pursue a four-year PhD program at the London School of Economics. In response to Amena's visa application for the LSE program, the Home Office cited potential harm to the public interest as grounds for denial without providing further explanation.

Subsequently, Amena initiated judicial review proceedings against the decision, but she later discovered that the Home Office had failed to disclose that Suella Braverman, the then Home Secretary, had personally approved the denial. This omission led to her lawyers submitting the appeal to the wrong court.

Recently the judge in the Upper Tribunal for Immigration and Asylum cases described the events as a “grave situation” that James Cleverly, now the home secretary, found himself in due to the failure to inform the tribunal of the certification decision. In the judgment by the upper tribunal, the Home Office was criticised for its “shockingly poor” and “seriously flawed” handling of the visa application. The judge described a “litany of errors” made by the Home Office, including the “deliberate” and “unlawful” decision not to notify Ashkar that the visa refusal had been certified by the then home secretary, Suella Braverman.

Amena's legal team emphasised the lack of reasons provided for the visa denial, describing it as "difficult to fathom" and raising concerns about whether the decision was influenced by the UK's relationship with another country. The case underscores broader questions about the impact of political considerations on visa decisions for Palestinian refugees.

When Amena was reached out for comments she said “I felt like my life was falling apart and I did not understand why”. She also added, “I couldn’t think of anything except me being a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon being the reason because why would someone do something like that without even giving a reason?

Since the judgement put the British Home Office on notice regarding their grave injustice, Cleverly said he was willing to make a fresh decision on Ashkar’s visa application.

In response to the claims, a spokesperson for the Home Office said: “It is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases.”

Ashkar, who is now working as a research assistant in Qatar, said, “I hope I just get the visa and go to LSE, I just want to start my PhD. I want to know why this happened. I earned that scholarship, I earned that position. And it’s not fair that I’m not getting it without even knowing why.”

A qualified Palestinian scholar, Amena is a prolific writer for various institutions with her work published in Mondoweiss and Beirut Today. According to the court’s judgement, there was no valid reason for Amena’s Visa to be blocked. However, as she points out maybe it has to do with her identity of being a Palestinian Refugee and the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman being a raging Zionist.

The events on October 7th and the Genocide of Gaza that has followed have nothing to do with Amena’s visa being blocked as this incident took place a whole year before 10/7. So I ask again, why don’t Palestinians leave their lands? Because they remain in refuge for the rest of their lives for generations to come. They are rejected for being Palestinians. They are punished for being Palestinians, just look at Rashida Tlaib who has family in the West Bank, and cannot speak her truth, even as a congresswoman.

Zionism does not just punish Palestinians in their homeland, but wherever they go. Just ask the Palestinian refugees in Syria, will you?