Mandela's grandson said he had been banned from entering the UK for events in Palestine.

Confusion has erupted after Nelson Mandela's grandson was left on a high-profile nine-day lecture tour after he failed to obtain a UK visa in time for his flight.

Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela has reportedly canceled a flight to the UK where he was due to speak at a series of pro-Palestinian events in eight cities, including Sheffield, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Bristol and Brighton. . .

He was expected to speak in person at an event in Sheffield on Thursday evening to kick off a speaking tour seen as a marquee event for Britain's pro-Palestinian activist movement.

“I feel like there are people trying to prevent me from being physically with you. [in Britain]“The struggle against apartheid and colonization cannot be stopped or silenced,” he said Thursday.

He is scheduled to visit Dublin, Ireland, where entry visa requirements are waived.

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Mandela, the grandson of the former South African president, served as a member of the South African National Assembly until May of this year.

A group called the Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid said on Thursday morning that Mandela had been “blocked from traveling to the UK”.

According to the group, “British officials initially told him that his South African government passport did not require a visa to enter the UK. But on Monday, Mandla was told he would need a visa.

“So far, despite high-level approaches from senior ANC figures, the British Embassy has not issued a visa or issued one.”

UK: Robert Jenrick calls for a ban on Palestinian advocacy group Friends of Al-Aqsa.

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In contrast, the Irish government “gave up its visa request for him,” the group said.

It is unclear whether Mandela will continue to hold a diplomatic passport as a former member of parliament.

The standard processing time for a UK standard visitor visa is usually around 3 weeks.

A Home Office spokesperson told Middle East Eye that the UK has strong safeguards in place to ensure visas are only issued to those who want to enter the country.

It comes after a report in The Times on Saturday that the Home Office was facing questions about whether Mandela should be granted a visa because of his “inflammatory rhetoric”.

“President Mandela has been quite open about his support for Hamas,” the report quoted Andrew Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a right-wing think tank, as saying. “We have a close relationship,” he said. regime while trading in my grandfather's name.

“It is clearly against the UK’s national interest to allow anyone to enter the UK who publicly praises a terrorist enemy who is prohibited under the Terrorism Act.”

The UK considers both Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorist organizations.

support for hamas

On October 7, 2023, the day Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel left 1,139 people dead and hundreds more taken hostage, Mandela said: “We support the Palestinian right to protest and call on all resistance organizations to also support Operation Al, flood Aqsa and intensify the fight on all fronts.”

He also told the international community to “stand up against this situation and support Hamas and the Palestinian resistance in their fight against the oppressors.”

Nelson Mandela and Palestine: In His Own Words

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After Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel in Tehran last July, Mandela praised him as “a great leader and an inspiration to all revolutionaries and freedom fighters in the world.”

Mandela said on Thursday: “I have been criticized for my comments in support of the Palestinian resistance and its various organizations.

“We in South Africa have had to learn the bitter lesson that despite the African National Congress (ANC) pursuing passive resistance for decades since its founding in 1906, the apartheid regime in South Africa has become increasingly brutal and violent.”

His grandfather, Nelson Mandela, was a strong supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel at the time.

“Nothing stopped him from speaking the truth and standing up for justice and human rights,” his grandson said.

“We will join the just struggle of the Palestinian people against colonial occupation and the theft of land and resources. We oppose occupation, no matter who supports it.”

In his 1997 International Day of Solidarity for Palestine speech, Nelson Mandela reaffirmed his support for Palestinian rights.

“We know only too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestine.”

“I felt at home among my compatriots,” he said in Gaza in 1999.

When Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died on November 11, 2004, Mandela praised him as “an icon in the right sense of the word.”

“He was concerned not only with the liberation of the Arab people, but with the liberation of all oppressed people around the world, Arab and non-Arab alike. And to lose a man of such stature and mind is a huge blow to all those who oppose oppression. “

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