{"text":[[{"start":8.9,"text":"Two of the US’s most prominent pro-Palestinian internet personalities have had their permission to travel to the UK revoked, in the latest of a series of travel bans issued by ministers amid concerns about inflammatory rhetoric."}],[{"start":23.65,"text":"Cenk Uygur and his nephew Hasan Piker were due to speak at this week’s London spin-off of the SXSW ideas festival and at an event in Oxford but had their electronic travel authorisations revoked."}],[{"start":36.05,"text":"The decision follows calls from Labour MP David Taylor for the pair to be banned from the UK. Taylor on Monday thanked Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for taking action."}],[{"start":45.8,"text":"“There’s no reason to open our doors to those who seek to spread hate and division,” Taylor, the MP for Hemel Hempstead, wrote on Monday on X."}],[{"start":56.349999999999994,"text":"However, Green Party leader Zack Polanski called the bans “really grim”."}],[{"start":60.8,"text":"“People often talk about [the] dangerous road we’d go down under a Reform government,” he wrote on X. “This is another clear warning we’re down there already.”"}],[{"start":70.8,"text":"Uygur co-hosts a YouTube channel called Young Turks, while Piker broadcasts commentary on the Twitch live-streaming platform."}],[{"start":78.55,"text":"Piker said earlier this year that Hamas was “1,000 times better” than Israel. He has insisted, however, that he is anti-Israel but not antisemitic."}],[{"start":88.75,"text":"Ministers have used their power to ban overseas speakers from entering the UK repeatedly in recent weeks as they have sought to calm increasingly contentious debates around issues of race and religion."}],[{"start":101.5,"text":"The Home Office revoked travel authorisation for 11 “far-right agitators” ahead of the “Unite the Kingdom” march organised by right-wing radical Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, on May 16."}],[{"start":114.55,"text":"Many UK Jewish figures have expressed concern in recent months about rhetoric associated with pro-Palestinian and pro-Iranian groups following a series of arson attacks and attempted attacks against Jewish targets since mid-March. Two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, on April 29 in what police called an antisemitic attack."}],[{"start":135,"text":"The Community Security Trust, which guards Jewish community buildings, welcomed the decision to bar Piker from the UK."}],[{"start":143.05,"text":"“While criticism of Israel is entirely legitimate, Piker has a record that goes far beyond robust or controversial political speech, including rhetoric that contains antisemitic themes, the denial of well-documented atrocities and language that risks fuelling antisemitism,” it said."}],[{"start":161.05,"text":"The Home Office declined to comment publicly on the refused travel authorisations."}],[{"start":166.4,"text":"However, one figure close to the department indicated that the pair’s right to travel had been cancelled on the grounds that their presence in the UK was not “conducive to the public good”."}],[{"start":176.1,"text":"Uygur wrote on X that he had found out about the ban after seeking to take a flight to the UK and being refused boarding."}],[{"start":183.4,"text":"He said: “I’ve been banned for criticising Israel. Are we free any more? This is oppression of western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country.”"}],[{"start":193.45000000000002,"text":"Piker also said he had been banned “at the behest of Israel”."}],[{"start":197.35000000000002,"text":"“The west is betraying ‘liberal values’ for a genocidal fascist foreign government,” he wrote."}],[{"start":210.65000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780379978_2784.mp3"}