Home Secretary urged to block entry of writer accused of celebrating 7 October attack

The Home Secretary has been urged to block an academic who described the 7 October Hamas terror attacks as “exhilarating” because of the “glimmer of hope” that they gave Gazans, with the Conservatives calling for a review of the case “as a matter of urgency”.

Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian writer of Palestinian origin, is due to travel to the UK on a book tour in October. Earlier this month, an advertised event featuring Ms Abdel-Fattah which was due to take place at the Cambridge Literary Festival on 8 October was abruptly removed from the festival’s website.

In an interview with Sky News Australia days after the attack, Abdel-Fattah said she did not regard Hamas “as terrorists” and argued that 7 October was inevitable after “every avenue of peaceful resistance” had failed.

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She has also previously written on social media: “To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives,” according to Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

The day after the massacre, Abdel-Fattah changed her Facebook profile picture to an image of a paraglider in the colours of the Palestinian flag.

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Hamas terrorists used motorised paragliders during the 7 October assault, including in the area of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of people were murdered.

Abdel-Fattah subsequently claimed she did not know about their use in the attack when she selected the image, which she said represented “freedom and escape from imprisonment”. She denied that it glorified violence against civilians.

As reported by The Telegraph, In his letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Chris Philp MP, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that “The Government cannot say that it is determined to confront extremism while failing to scrutinise overseas speakers whose rhetoric appears to celebrate or excuse the events of October 7 and refuse to describe a proscribed terrorist organisation for what they are.

“The timing makes this visit particularly concerning. Ms Abdel-Fattah’s tour falls around the anniversary of the October 7 atrocities, at a time when British Jewish communities continue to face acute security.

“I therefore urge you to review Ms Abdel-Fattah’s case as a matter of urgency and, if the relevant legal threshold is met, refuse or cancel any Electronic Travel Authorisation, entry clearance or other permission required for her to enter the UK.

“Entry to this country is not an unconditional right for foreign nationals. Where an overseas visitor’s conduct, character or associations raise serious concerns about extremist rhetoric or activity, the Government must be prepared to use its powers to block them.”

Ms Abdel-Fattah was at the centre of a literary storm in Australia after being disinvited from the 2026 Adelaide Writer’s Week Festival in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, a move condemned by the writer as “censorship”, despite the fact that she herself had previously lobbied for writers she deemed to be Zionist to be banned from such festivals. The board of Writer’s Week resigned and the festival was cancelled; a new board was subsequently appointed which apologised to Abdel-Fattah and invited her to the 2027 festival.

A Home Office spokesman said: “It is a long-standing rule that we never comment on individual cases or operational matters. We are committed to rooting out antisemitism and anyone spreading hatred will face the full force of the law.”