MP backing musicians in visa wrangle

EDINBURGH MP Mark Lazarowicz has called on the Government to intervene so that a group of Palestinian musicians can visit Edinburgh.

Mr Lazarowicz was contacted by the group Women In Black Scotland, which is attempting to bring Yousef Awad, the director of the Jenin Cultural Centre in the occupied Palestinian territories, and three musicians to play at several events in the Scottish capital.

The men were due to travel to Britain on November 11 but the British Consulate in Jerusalem, while granting a visa to Yousef, turned down the documentation for the three musicians, Ahmed Bashir, Quais Abu Nada and S M Natour, on the grounds they feared they might stay in the UK illegally.

The Scottish Palestinian Forum has undertaken to cover their expenses and claim the group have spent all their savings surviving since the UK and European Union stopped supporting the Palestinian territories in the wake of the Hamas election victory.

Edinburgh North and Leith MP Mr Lazarowicz said the musicians were "innocent victims of the present governmental funding crisis in the Palestinian authority".