{"id":193,"date":"2026-06-04T13:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=193"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:12:14","slug":"hasan-pikers-ban-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"Hasan Piker\u2019s Ban Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On Monday, the British government revoked the travel visas of leftist streamers Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, who had planned to speak at SXSW London and at other venues around the country.<\/p>\n

Read more A New Documentary Shows How Paid Leave Gives Families a Lifeline<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Piker and Uygur were told that their presence was \u201cnot conducive to the public good.\u201d It is widely assumed that they were targeted for their vocal criticism of Israel and support for Palestine.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Israel lobby had campaigned for this exact outcome. Last week, a group of MPs and concerned citizens called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to ban Piker in particular, claiming he is an antisemite who would pose a threat to the UK\u2019s Jewish community still reeling from recent attacks in northwest London.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s clear from the lobby\u2019s convenient omission of Piker\u2019s 2025 speech at the Oxford Union condemning antisemitism and the conflation of Zionism and Judaism that this travel ban has nothing to do with the safety of the Jewish community. Rather, this act of cowardly capitulation is part of the Labour government\u2019s rapidly accelerating crackdown on expression that is critical of Israel and supportive of Palestine\u2014an effort that is both facilitating the UK\u2019s ongoing complicity in the genocide in Gaza and destroying the country\u2019s own institutions from the inside out.<\/p>\n

Last July, the same government department that canceled Piker and Uygur\u2019s visas made the unprecedented decision to designate Palestine Action, a group known for direct actions, such as spraying red paint on factories and offices associated with Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons firm with manufacturing sites and subsidiaries throughout the UK, as a terrorist organization\u2014placing it in the same legal category as ISIS and neo-Nazi groups like National Action and the \u201cManiacs Murder Cult\u201d (a group that was proscribed at the same time as Palestine Action).<\/p>\n

This decision was roundly condemned by human rights organizations and as a grave abuse of counterterrorism legislation. Many noted that the consequences of the ban go far beyond outlawing the group\u2019s activities, as proscription places restrictions on everyone<\/em>\u2019s ability to express support for the organization and its actions, not only the group\u2019s members. UN Human Rights Chief Volker T\u00fcrk warned that the ban \u201climits the rights of many people involved with and supportive of Palestine Action who have not themselves engaged in any underlying criminal activity but rather exercised their right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.\u201d In doing so, he said, it \u201cconflates protected expression and other conduct with acts of terrorism and so could readily lead to further chilling effect on the lawful exercise of these rights by many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

That future has come to pass.<\/p>\n

In the 11 months since, more than 2,700 people\u2014including many pensioners and faith leaders\u2014have been arrested under anti-terrorism laws for holding signs or otherwise expressing support for the group.<\/p>\n

In January, the UK\u2019s High Court ruled that the proscription was unlawful, but the government immediately challenged the decision. While the appeal takes place, the law still stands; recently, around 500 supporters were arrested in London\u2019s Parliament Square.<\/p>\n

The impact of the government\u2019s crackdown on Palestine Action has not been limited to mass arrests. Over the last few months, we\u2019ve begun to witness the deeply corrosive effect of this authoritarian turn on the broader justice system.<\/p>\n

Read more Hasan Piker\u2019s Ban Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg<\/a><\/p>\n

It was recently revealed, for instance, that a High Court judge will seek to sentence four Palestine Action activists as terrorists\u2014despite the fact that they were not charged with terrorist offenses and their arrests for a raid on an Elbit factory occurred a year prior to the proscription of the organization.<\/p>\n

Shockingly, the possibility that a \u201cterror connection\u201d could be retroactively added to the conviction was not communicated to the jury, which found the activists guilty of criminal damage last month. At the same time, strict reporting restrictions kept the developments of the case from reaching the public. According to Novara Media, this is understood to be the first time that a court will use terrorism laws to sentence individual activists taking direct action.<\/p>\n

In another unprecedented development, a barrister defending some of the Palestine Action activists, Rajiv Menon, was referred for contempt of court proceedings as punishment for the content of his closing speech in a January trial. Menon, widely recognized as a leading human rights lawyer, allegedly broke a directive from the judge ordering him not to tell the jury that they had the right to acquit the activists on the basis of conscience.<\/p>\n

The legal profession\u2019s response to the prosecution has been scathing. In a statement, Garden Court Chambers (a collection of barristers, of which Menon is a member) wrote, \u201cNot only is this the first time in English legal history that a barrister is being prosecuted for contempt in respect of a closing speech at a criminal trial, but the procedure being used to prosecute Rajiv is wholly novel and without historical precedent.\u201d Paul Heron, a solicitor with the Public Interest Law Centre, told Declassified UK that \u201cthis case risks establishing a dangerous precedent in which the boundaries of criminal defence are narrowed precisely in cases involving protest and dissent,\u201d and expressed fear that this could place at risk the right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

Menon won an initial challenge to halt the contempt proceedings, but the case against him may still continue.<\/p>\n

There are countless other examples of the shrinking space for pro-Palestine speech and activism in British life. In December, for example, police began arresting those who chant or march with a sign that says \u201cglobalise the intifada,\u201d deeming such an act to be a \u201cracially aggravated public order offense.\u201d In April, the government\u2019s new Crime and Policing Act 2026 ushered in a host of new police powers to restrict protests near places of worship, all of which are clearly intended to curb the country\u2019s massive pro-Palestine marches, if not offer justification for outright banning them, too.<\/p>\n

One doesn\u2019t need to think hard to imagine how a far-right Reform government might command a state with a weakened judicial system, highly restricted civil liberties, and substantially enhanced police and counter-terror powers.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to Palestine, it\u2019s difficult to see how Labour\u2019s record of authoritarianism can be surpassed. As Green Party leader Zack Polanski said in response to Piker and Uygur\u2019s bans, \u201cPeople often talk about [the] dangerous road we\u2019d go down under a Reform government\u2014this is another clear warning we\u2019re down there already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more January 13, 1941: James Joyce Dies<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nHasan Piker\u2019s Ban Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=193\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hasan Piker\u2019s Ban Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=193\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T13:12:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Hasan Piker\u2019s Ban Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T13:12:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193\"},\"wordCount\":1129,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/9383c04b91137f6ca2f8057884410122.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=193\",\"name\":\"Hasan Piker\u2019s Ban Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg - 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