No. We Shouldn't take Refugees from Gaza

My view on why some on the left are wrong to call for yet another scheme

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Do you remember the utterly sickening images of October 7th, of Hamas Islamist terrorists and ordinary Palestinians storming into Israel and rampaging through civilian areas? The murder, the rape, the indiscriminate violence? Did you see that and think: “those are people I’d like to have as my neighbours?”

Well, that’s what a few dozen Labour, Green and other politicians, alongside dozens of charities and law firms, just called for. Just this week, they debated creating a new visa scheme for Palestinian refugees, modelled on the one that was created for Ukrainians. And it comes after a petition calling for just that reached 100,000 signatures online.

Now, I won’t deny that many of the images coming out of Gaza are utterly horrific and heartbreaking. I don’t envy the civilians trapped in Rafah right now. And I’m sure we all hope the innocents can seek safety in one of their many neighbouring countries.

But if you’re like me then you also felt just as horrified by the events on October 7th, by the toxic alliance that’s since emerged between far-left and radical Islamist activists who now take to Britain’s streets each week in the name of Palestine, and by the blatant, ugly sectarianism that’s emerging in our politics as a direct result.

So, when I think about a visa for Palestinians, I think it means much more of that.

If you don’t believe me then then just look, for example, at the case of Dana Abuqamar. She comes from Gaza and is a law student at the University of Manchester. Seemingly educated, a woman, with the tremendous privilege to live and study in Britain. You’d think she’d be just who such a visa would be for.

But after the October 7th attacks Abuqamar went on camera at a pro-Palestine protest to describe how full of pride and joy she was at what the Hamas terrorists had perpetrated. Pride and joy at the massacre of unarmed young people at a music concert? Pride and joy at the murder of civilians in their homes? Pride and joy at the rape of young festival-goers? I’m sure I’m not alone in being utterly sickened by that.

Thankfully, our long-failing Home Office has actually done the right thing by revoking her visa. But how many others out there share her views and haven’t been foolish enough to say them on camera? After all, she’s not the only one.

There’s also the case of Heba Alhayek. She too claimed asylum in Britain, claiming she had to flee Hamas and that her life would be at risk if she went back to Gaza because of her family’s criticism of the terrorist group.

But just seven days after October 7th, following media reports Hamas had attacked Israel using paragliders, Alhayek and her two friends were photographed on a pro-Palestine march wearing disgusting images of paragliders sellotaped to their clothes.

Amazingly, Judge Tan Ikram decided not to punish her, saying he didn’t think she or her friends were real Hamas supporters and that emotions had been running high. So, you know what, personally I don’t trust our immigration system to make sure that any Palestine visa wouldn’t easily be infiltrated by people who glorify Hamas. After all, our broken system has already been providing homes for senior Hamas lieutenants.

And this is clearly not just about one or two cases. Recent polling by the Washington Institute last year found that a majority of people in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem hold positive views of Hamas. Even worse, the same poll found that some three quarters of Gazans express some form of support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. As the name suggests, they’re not exactly a cuddly bunch.

And nor is this the only piece of evidence.

Another poll, this time by the Arab World for Research and Development, found that the majority of Palestinians supported the October 7th attacks, have a positive view of Hamas, and think the West supports Israel because of the “Israeli lobby”.

If you want to know where that worldview leads, then you only have to look up north where, this week, three men were arrested in the Greater Manchester area over a plot to acquire a machine gun and attack Jews, the police and the British Army.

Just a few, insane individuals right? Maybe. But, then again, maybe not.

As I’ve already written, the blunt reality is because of decades of mass immigration and a lack of social integration we already live in a country where around half of all British Muslims sympathise with Hamas, nearly one-third openly say they have positive views of the Islamist terrorist group, around half say Israel does not have a right to exist, while more British Muslims than not reject the suggestion Hamas committed murder and rape on October 7th. Do we really want to add to this?

And don’t think this is somehow unique to Britain, because it’s not.

While you won’t hear much about this on the Labour benches or in the Green party conferences, in 1970 Palestinian refugees caused a civil war in Jordan while five years later an influx of Palestinians into Lebanon contributed to a civil war there, too.

Meanwhile, closer to home, in the 1990s a Danish study of 321 Palestinians who had been given refuge found that nearly two-thirds of them went on to acquire criminal records while many more became dependent on the welfare state.

There are, in other words, real dangers to accepting some refugees.

Britain has a long history of providing refuge. We can be proud of that. We can be proud of the role we played in helping Hong-Kongers and Ukrainians, among others.

But we now also live in an age of mass immigration, which has stretched our capabilities beyond their limits, is eroding social cohesion, and reducing social trust.

In the last few years alone, the British people have supported visa schemes for people from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan. In the first year after their creation, over a quarter of a million people from Ukraine and Hong Kong entered the country.

This means we invited more refugees to come here in one year than we built houses. That at a time when house prices and rents are soaring, when one think-tank says we somehow need to build some 4 million new homes to fix the housing crisis, and when countless British families are being squeezed out of the housing market.

So, while this will not be a popular point in London the generosity of our government does come at a very real cost to the British people —especially all those young Brits who are not on —and at this rate cannot ever hope to be on— the property ladder.

No wonder, late last year, YouGov polling found that more people think Britain does not have a moral obligation to help Palestinian refugees than the number who do. And my own polling, exclusively this week for GB News, finds the British people are not exactly thrilled about the idea that’s being pushed by some in the Labour opposition.

When asked what they think about the idea of Britain introducing a new visa scheme for refugees from Palestine, only 12% of Brits say they strongly support the idea with a further 17% ‘tending to support’, meaning not even one in three (29%) back the idea overall. A larger number, 42%, openly oppose the idea. The rest say they don’t know.

Creating a new Palestine visa will only add more pressure onto our over-loaded infrastructure —longer waits for GPs and dentists, busier roads, and higher rents. And not to mention the very real and pressing risks to security and social cohesion, not least in Britain’s already isolated and anxious Jewish community. Imagine, for a moment, what British Jews are thinking and feeling amid all this?

We need, in other words, to be realistic about what we can do and what is in Britain’s longer-term interest. The best thing we can do is to help Palestinian refugees where they are. British people go on holiday to Turkey in part because it’s cheaper. Unsurprisingly, a refugee in Britain costs much more than one in the Middle East. Therefore, we need to return to our policy during the Syrian Civil War —to help refugees in the region, where our aid money can go further and help more people.

And we need to break the knee-jerk habit, prominent on the political left, to call for a new refugee visa anytime there happens to be a new conflict in the world. While this might feed the feelings of moral righteousness on the Labour benches it’s completely unsustainable and is putting the British people, who must come first, at risk.

Britain is already suffering and visibly declining under the weight of unprecedented flows of mass immigration, a complete lack of social integration, inflation, high taxes and soaring energy prices. It’s now time for British politicians to put those feelings of moral righteousness to one side and prioritise the British people and the country. The British people have done their bit —it’s now time for somebody else to step forward.

Matt Goodwin’s Substack goes to more than 56,000+ subscribers from 167 countries around the world and thousands of paying supporters who support our work. Like our stuff? Then help us expand by becoming a paid supporter and access everything —the full archive, exclusive posts, polling, leave comments, join the debate, get discounts, advance notice about events, and the knowledge you’re supporting independent writers who are not afraid to push back against the grain. You can join us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X and Facebook.