The United Kingdom looks to be following in the footsteps of France by threatening to expel immigrants who incite anti-Semitism in the aftermath of the huge terror attack on Israel, according to its government.
People who “glorified” terrorism and the terror group Hamas, even when the law was not infringed, may be deported, according to Robert Jenrick, a Conservative member of parliament and government minister.
The Guardian reports Jenrick said on radio Wednesday morning that the bar wouldn’t be so low as to include waving a Palestinian flag at a demonstration because “we believe in freedom of speech”, nevertheless in his view visitors to the United Kingdom do not have a right to antisemitism.
He is reported to have said: “I think there is conduct which is below the criminal standard but which is wrong, would be accepted as wrong by most reasonable people. If those people are not British citizens, they are just visitors to our country enjoying the privileges of living here, being among fellow British people, then I’m afraid their visas will be revoked and they should leave the country.”
Those who visit the United Kingdom must abide by British values while they stay, the immigration minister said.
Jenrick has previously said the process to remove arrivals into the UK who fail this test is already underway but has declined to name any specific cases.
The Daily Telegraph suggests the numbers involved are very low, with just six people presently facing having their visas revoked for such behaviour so far.
As is often the case with the British government, telling someone they have no right to be in the nation is the simple part; actually pushing them to go appears to be beyond the state’s capabilities. Boat migrants, for example, are deported at a startlingly low rate of less than half a percent.
Government employees have even threatened to go on strike in order to prevent deportations.
The alleged UK plot follows a similar statement by Emmanuel Macron’s French government, which banned pro-Palestine gatherings and vowed to deport “troublemakers” a week earlier.
Days later, Macron declared that a “ruthless” inspection of official data on suspected extremists would take place, and that foreign-born Islamists would be deported from France.