BDS movement co-founder and Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti has been denied an entry visa to the United Kingdom to speak at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign organization announced on Friday.
Barghouti was due to speak at the event, hosted by PSC, in Brighton on Sunday, titled "Palestine in the Age of Trump." PSC said Barghouti was unable to travel to the United Kingdom "because his visa was abnormally delayed by the British government without explanation."
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The PSC blamed the issue with Barghouti's visa on "growing efforts by Israel and its allies to suppress Palestinian voices and the movements for Palestinian rights."
Barghouti was also set to address The World Transformed, a four-day grassroots political fringe festival running alongside the Labour Party conference, on the topic of "criminalizing solidarity." The festival describes itself as being "about setting a radical agenda for the Corbyn project and beyond," The Jewish Chronicle reported.
He will instead speak at both events via video.
In a response to being denied a visa, Barghouti said, "We shall continue to fight their McCarthyism and repression, and persist in the pursuit of our UN-stipulated rights, including self-determination and the return of our ethnically cleansed refugees."
Barghouti, who regularly demonizes Israel, received a master's degree from Tel Aviv University and is currently studying for a doctoral degree there.
He has called Israel an "apartheid state," promoted its destruction and expressed support for terrorism. He also opposes the Jewish right to self-determination and Israel's existence.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
