London, United Kingdom \u2013 A pro-Palestine academic who was planning to travel to the United Kingdom has been denied entry because the government says his \u201cpresence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good\u201d.<\/p>\n
The UK Home Office cancelled Swedish national Andreas Malm\u2019s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) on Wednesday, an email seen by Al Jazeera shows.<\/p>\n
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The decision came a week before Malm was due to appear on a panel organised by the British socialist magazine Tribune in London. Huda Ammori, cofounder of Palestine Action<\/a> \u2013 which the UK has proscribed<\/a> as a \u201cterrorist\u201d group \u2013 is also due to appear on the panel, which will be chaired by Hala Hanina of Palestine Deep Dive.<\/p>\n Malm, a climate activist and author who lectures at Lund University in Sweden, told Al Jazeera that he believes his ETA was cancelled because he was due to appear on the panel. He has contacted the Home Office for an explanation but is yet to receive a response.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been going regularly to the UK for decades. My position on Palestine has always been public,\u201d Malm said, adding that his latest visit to the country was in May.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t said anything in public about Palestine during these intervening months or written anything about it. The only thing that could have caused this [latest UK decision] is that I was due to be on a panel on Wednesday evening, where I would talk to Huda Ammori of Palestine Action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Malm used an ETA during his May visit to the UK, which allowed him to travel to the country again later in the year without seeking reauthorisation. He 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Home Office that his ETA was at risk of being cancelled before receiving an email on Wednesday confirming that it had been revoked.<\/p>\n In its email, the Home Office told Malm that if he wishes to visit the UK, he needs to apply for a visa, after which the office will \u201cconsider your circumstances in more detail\u201d before making a decision. However, the government website states that the processing time for a standard visitor visa is three weeks, meaning Malm would not receive it in time for next week\u2019s panel even if his application were approved.<\/p>\n Travellers from countries whose nationals do not require a visa to visit the UK generally need an ETA. These include countries in Europe, the United States and Canada, among others.<\/p>\n The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.<\/p>\n \u201cDecisions to refuse or cancel an ETA on the grounds that presence in the UK may not be conducive to public good are based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society,\u201d it said in a statement to Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The cancellation of Malm\u2019s ETA comes amid a wider crackdown on pro-Palestine activists by the UK government, something that began under then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n Tribune editor Oliver Eagleton said, \u201cAndy Burnham\u2019s government continues the authoritarian overreach we saw under Starmer. In this new dystopian Britain, it is now commonplace for authors and academics to be treated as terrorists because they support Palestinians facing genocide and the rights of people protesting that genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, was prime minister when the government proscribed Palestine Action last year.<\/p>\n The move classified the campaign group as a \u201cterrorist\u201d organisation under UK law, placing it on the same legal list as groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS). The proscription has been condemned by rights groups, including Amnesty International.<\/p>\n