2 writers due to give talk at Shubbak festival barred

2011 Shubbak Festival at the V&A Museum Two Palestinian writers have been refused visas to travel to the UK and speak at a festival celebrating contemporary Arab art. The Gaza-based husband and wife writers, Ali Abukhattab and Samah al-Sheikh, were due to talk about their writing at London's ICA on 28 June but have been barred from coming.
Shubbak is a 15-day festival from June 22 with visual art shows, concerts, theatre, talks and debates at venues that include the Barbican, Tate Modern and the British Museum.
An organiser said one of the aims of the festival was to give people in the UK a "fresh perspective on countries that are mostly in the headlines for the wrong reasons."