Canadian visa refusal for Palestinian poet overturned after social media campaign

A social media victory is being claimed on behalf of the leading Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan after his visa to enter Canada to attend a prestigious poetry award ceremony – initially denied – was granted on Thursday.

Zaqtan was shortlisted for the C$65,000 (£41,000) Griffin poetry prize in April for his 10th collection Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, described by judges as poetry which “reminds us why we live and how, in the midst of war, despair, global changes”. But the Palestinian poet and novelist, who is also founding director of the House of Poetry in Ramallah, found that his request for a visa to travel to Canada to attend the ceremony was denied by the Canadian embassy in Cairo, according to his translator Fady Joudah.

Joudah, who believes Zaqtan’s poetry “is important because, simply, it is poetry of the highest kind that speaks to the human condition…took to Facebook to mobilise support for the Palestinian writer. Literary names and organisations including Margaret Atwood and PEN also raised the alert about the situation on Twitter. The Griffin Trust, meanwhile, said that it was “working through appropriate Canadian government channels in the hope we can welcome poet Ghassan Zaqtan to the Griffin Poetry Prize awards festivities in mid-June”.

“People took to social media. A piece in The National Post was written. In less than 48 hours, an official from the Canadian embassy in Cairo called Ghassan Zaqtan’s residence in Ramallah and informed his wife that no further action need be taken…The visa was now granted,” said Joudah.