Heavily abridged. Hyperlink to article in title.

Those who championed free speech in the UK and US now wage war on it. And here’s why: Palestine

Mehdi Hasan

The Guardian: 8 Jun 2026

It was once an article of faith that even those who speak words we disagree with deserve protection. As regards Palestine, that’s now not true.

In Britain, where I was born and raised, the government proscribed the direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation – with the shameful support of 385 votes in parliament from across the political spectrum. We have since witnessed priests and elderly and disabled people grabbed by the police for holding signs that simply said, “I oppose genocide; I support Palestine Action”. Their real crime was daring to speak out against a UK-enabled genocide.

Last week, the British state took another extraordinary step in its campaign of repression against pro-Palestine figures, blocking US commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the UK. The Home Office did not explain its reasoning.

This isn’t even about Uygur or Piker’s views. Whether one agrees with everything either man has ever said is irrelevant. Piker, for example, referred to some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and once said the US “deserved” 9/11, both offensive comments for which he has since expressed regret.

Defending free speech is most crucial when that speech is controversial. You cannot show your support for free expression only by defending opinions you already share.

The Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian voices and, in particular, foreign students should be seen as one of the most severe assaults on free expression in modern American history. Don’t take my word for it. Even a rightwing, Ronald Reagan-appointed judge denounced the crackdown on student protesters as a “full-throated assault on the first amendment across the board under the cover of an unconstitutionally broad definition of antisemitism”.

On Wednesday, Republican congressman Randy Fine said Piker, a US citizen by birth, “shouldn’t be allowed into America” and called him a “terrorist”.

Congress, meanwhile, keeps proposing and passing resolutions designed to stifle criticism of Israel. At the state level, laws opposing the boycott of Israel are spreading fast. Academics have been targeted. Journalists have been smeared.

How can any of this be justified in a democracy? No foreign government should be granted immunity from criticism. Not China. Not Saudi Arabia. Not Israel.

And yet the self-proclaimed Jewish state occupies a uniquely and weirdly protected place in our political discourse. Criticism that would be considered routine in any other context – don’t bomb hospitals! Don’t kill kids! – is cynically rebranded as anti-Jewish bigotry.

A genocide abroad is helping usher in fascism at home. Poll after poll shows the UK and US publics have switched their support from the Israelis to the Palestinians. And the response from the pro-Israel people in power, having seen that they cannot win the argument on Palestine, is to now prevent the argument from happening.

Because once we give our governments the power to decide which political opinions are acceptable, why on earth would you assume that they will stop at Palestine?

Yeah, labor in the tank for Israel.

In general I'm very much for free speech.

However, much of the rhetoric from pro Palestiniacs is basically calling for valence and genocide against Jews.

So when that's the issue, I think there is room for debate just as yelling fire in a crowded theater is "free speech" that is not OK

Every other day for past 30 months been hate, calls for murder in the pally wally marches in London..don't see any censorship there..what are you talking about???

It is sad the UK, which was effectively the base of free has deteriorated to this.

Palestinians and their supporters are nothing but trouble . They cause a disruption everywhere they go .

Go and shout and protest and be a nuisance somewhere else