Mandela’s grandson banned from entering UK for pro-Palestine events

London (Quds News Network)- The British government has banned the entry of Nelson Mandela’s grandson ahead of his UK tour where he was due to address a series of pro-Palestine events.
Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela has reportedly canceled his flight to the UK, where he was due to address a series of pro-Palestine events in eight cities – Sheffield, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Bristol and Brighton – including one alongside Labour MPs.
On Thursday evening, he had been expected to speak in person at an event in Sheffield to kick off his speaking tour, seen as a major event for the British pro-Palestinian activist movement.
“It seems that there are those who are intent on preventing me from being physically with you [in Britain],” he said on Thursday, adding that “the struggle against Apartheid and against colonization cannot be stopped or silenced.”
A group called Sheffield Palestine Coalition against Israeli Apartheid said on Thursday morning that Mandela has been “prevented from traveling to the UK”.
According to the organization, “British officials had initially told him that his South African government passport did not require a visa to enter the UK.
However, on Monday, Mandla was informed that he did require a visa.
“So far, despite high level approaches from senior ANC figures, the British embassy has not relented or issued a visa.”
The organization said that by contrast, the Irish government has “waived the visa requirement for him”.
Mandla will speak at an anti-apartheid rally taking place in Dublin next week. He is the keynote speaker at the Dismantling Apartheid: South Africa to Palestine rally in Liberty Hall Theatre on Wednesday, 16 October.
Mandela was a member of parliament in the South Africa National Assembly until May this year.
It is unclear whether, as a former MP, Mandela would still possess a diplomatic passport.
The standard processing time for a UK Standard Visitor Visa is usually around three weeks.
The ban comes after a report in The Times last Saturday which said the Home Office faced questions about whether Mandela should be granted a visa because of his “inflammatory rhetoric”.
The report quoted Andrew Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a right-wing think tank, who said: “Mr Mandela has been quite open about his support of Hamas. He has also praised Hezbollah and has close links to the Iranian regime, whilst trading on his grandfather’s name.”
“It is quite demonstrably against the UK’s national interest to allow into the country someone who openly praises our terrorist enemies, a number of whom are proscribed under the Terrorism Act.”
On 7 October 2023, the day of Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Flood operation, Mandela said: “We support the Palestinian right to resist and call on all resistance formations to likewise support Operation Al Aqsa Flood and intensify the struggle on all fronts.”
He also told the international community to “rise to the occasion and support Hamas and the Palestinian resistance in fighting their oppressor”.
After Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel in Tehran in July, Mandela described him as a “great leader and an inspiration to all revolutionaries and freedom fighters of the world”.
On Thursday, Mandela said: “I have been criticized for statements that I have made in support of the Palestinian Resistance and its various formations.”
“We in South Africa had to learn this bitter lesson that despite the African National Congress (ANC) pursuing passive resistance for decades since its inception in 1906, the South African Apartheid regime became increasingly brutal and violent.”
“We will stand with the people of Palestine in their just struggle against colonial occupation and theft of their lands and resources. We oppose occupation regardless of who supports it.”