01 May 2006 Blog Home : May 2006 : Permalink
GAZA (Reuters) - A Hamas legislator said on Monday that France had denied him a visa to visit as part of an unofficial Palestinian parliamentary delegation.
Salah al-Bardaweel said he would apply to other European countries to grant him a visa to join a delegation of four other Palestinian lawmakers from parties unconnected to Hamas who are visiting France, Norway, Spain, Germany, Italy and Austria.
"They gave no reasons for the rejection but it was clear I was denied a visa because I am a parliamentarian from Hamas," Bardaweel told Reuters.
Unlike the French, who obviously don't want to let an acknowledged terrorist sympathizer in even if they won't explicitly say so, Reuters goes to great lengths to defend Bardaweel and present him as some sort of misunderstood victim:[The EU] has cut off all direct aid to the Palestinian Authority as well as contacts with Hamas officials until the movement, which calls for Israel's destruction, moderates its position.
Hamas, which has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis since the start of a Palestinian uprising, has largely abided by a cease-fire in place for more than a year.
But it has so far refused to heed the call to abandon policies that put it on the United States and European Union's list of terror organisations.
So a multinational policy of denying visas to Hamas supporters until they renounce their terror policies is, according to al-Reuters unjustified because, despite their policies they have hadly killed anyone in the last year. The illogic behind that statement is truly breathtaking.