An insult to Arab Spring: Palestinian bloggers denied visa

October 3, 2011 by abirkopty 12 Comments

12 Palestinian bloggers where invited to attend the 3^rd Arab bloggers meeting in Tunisia. They will NOT make it, after denied entry visa by the Tunisian embassy. This is an insult to the Arab Spring.

This event, which started today October 3^rd and continues until October 6^th, gathers tens of bloggers from around the Arab world.

I wonder: do not Palestinians also have the experience to share and the right to learn? Are Palestinians part of the Arab world or not? Do not they have enough of Israeli siege and movement restrictions so they will have further restrictions imposed by Arab regimes?

The Palestinian bloggers, some of them are from the occupied territories since 1967 and some are from Israel (known as 48 Palestinians) were all denied visa to Tunisia. The reason that has been given by Tunisian Ministry of Interior for the denial of visa to Palestinian bloggers is that Organization ‘Nawaat’ who invited them and conference itself are not licensed. So we wonder how come all the other Arab participants received visa to unlicensed event?

Wajd Bouabdellah , Tunisian blogger and great friend from twitter, declared boycotting the event, as an act of protest and solidarity. And here is her post explaining her decision

For me, Arab spring is not only about changing the regime; it’s also about changing the practices of the regimes, who worked hard to separate us, because Arab solidarity and unity are a threat to their stability. It is also about having the power to fight any injustice.

This is a call for Arab participants in the conference to make a clear stand against the exclusion of the Palestinian participants, and show solidarity with them. Let us refuse to be silent.

On October 4th the organizers of the Arab bloggers meeting issued an official statement 

And here is online petition, circulated today October 5th.

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