Protestsupdated 1h ago2 min read
MapUK Home Office Cancels Andreas Malm’s ETA Before London Panel With Palestine Action
“It is the Home Office’s outrageous act of political censorship that harms the public good”
“Decisions to refuse or cancel an ETA on the grounds that presence in the UK may not be conducive to public good”
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Home Office canceled Swedish academic Andreas Malm’s ETA, barring entry to the UK. He was due to speak on a London panel with Palestine Action co-founder.
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Malm barred before panel
London’s Home Office cancelled Swedish author and climate academic Andreas Malm’s Electronic Travel Authorisation, saying his “presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good,” ahead of a London panel organised by Tribune. Malm told Al Jazeera that he believed the ETA was cancelled because he was due to appear on a panel chaired by Hala Hanina of Palestine Deep Dive alongside Huda Ammori, a cofounder of Palestine Action.
Malm said he had “been going regularly to the UK for decades” and that his position on Palestine “has always been public,” adding that his latest visit to the country was in May. Malm said he had received no indication from the Home Office that his ETA was at risk of being cancelled before receiving an email on Wednesday confirming that it had been revoked, and he said the only thing that could have caused the decision was the scheduled appearance on the panel.
Freedom of expression row
Andreas Malm told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that he could not see any other explanation for the Home Office’s decision than his scheduled appearance on the Tribune panel. Malm urged the government to reconsider and called the ban “nothing short of scandalous,” while he also said he was prevented from going to the UK “to sit on a public panel, speak to the BBC, attend an academic conference.”
Sally Rooney said the decision to ban Malm was “a sad and frightening act of cultural self-harm,” and she described Malm as one of “the most brilliant and influential intellectuals working in Europe today.” Tribune editor Oliver Eagleton said it was “deeply disturbing” that Malm was “seemingly being censored for speaking out about censorship,” and he added that it is “now commonplace for authors and academics to be treated as terrorists” for supporting Palestinians facing genocide.
Protest crackdown and court
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases and stated that decisions to refuse or cancel an ETA on “the grounds that presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good” are based on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society. Al Jazeera reported that the cancellation came amid a wider crackdown on pro-Palestine activists by the UK government, something that began under then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and the article said the government proscribed Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group.
Verso Books said it was “shocked and disturbed” by the Labour government’s decision to ban Andreas Malm from entering the United Kingdom, and the publisher said “Never in over 55 years of publishing has a British government revoked the right of one of our authors to enter the country.” The Tribune event was timed to coincide with the start of a supreme court challenge to the ban next Wednesday, and the dispute centered on the impact of the proscription on free speech and on the author Sally Rooney’s books being withdrawn from sale in the UK.