Far-left pundits Hasan Piker, Cenk Uygur say UK barred them
The American anti-Israel commentators said British authorities had revoked their travel authorization, citing concerns that their presence was not conducive to the public good.
Cenk Uygur, host of Current TVs The Young Turks
British border authorities have denied entry visas to far-left and anti-Israel American commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, the two said on Monday.
Uygur, who recently called Israel an “empire that does terrorism to seize land,’ wrote on X: “I’ve been banned from the U.K.,” adding that he was not allowed to board a flight to the United Kingdom to “give a speech at Oxford. I’ve been banned for criticizing Israel.”
The co-host of The Young Turks, a popular YouTube show, added: “Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!”
Piker, who is Uygur’s nephew, also said on Sunday he’d been denied entry.
“Your U.K. ETA has been canceled,” Piker read out a message he said he got from U.K. authorities .”This means you cannot travel to the U.K. without a visa. This is because your presence in the U.K. is not considered to be conducive to the public good,” he said, reading from a computer screen on his channel on the Twitch video platform.
He linked this to a call by British Jewish groups last month for British authorities to bar his entry. “Jewish groups call on U.K. to bar dangerous Hasan Piker amid antisemitic attacks,” he read out one newspaper’s headline about this, adding: “And they did.”
Piker was due to appear in London for a live podcast with news and opinion website UnHerd on June 5 and a talk at music and technology festival SXSW London on June 4.
Piker called Orthodox Jews “inbred” last year on Twitch, the video platform where he has over 3 million followers. He later said that’s a term he applies to all “supremacists.”
In April, Piker also stated he would “choose Hamas over Israel” during an appearance on a Pod Save America episode. “As a lesser-evil voter,” he said, “I’d choose Hamas every single time.”
Glorifying terrorist organizations, including Hamas, is illegal in the United Kingdom, which has arrested hundreds of people for this in recent months.
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