A Swedish climate academic says he has been denied entry to the United Kingdom because he was scheduled to appear on a panel alongside a co-founder of Palestine Action, a group proscribed as a terrorist organisation under UK law.
Andreas Malm, a senior lecturer in human ecology at Lund University in Sweden, said his Electronic Travel Authorisation was cancelled by the Home Office. He received a letter stating that his presence in the UK was "not conducive to the public good", with no further explanation provided.
Malm told a radio programme that he could not "see any other explanation" for the decision beyond his planned appearance with Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, at an event organised by the left-wing British magazine Tribune in London.
The panel was also due to be chaired by Hala Hanina of Palestine Deep Dive.
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases. In a statement, it said: "Decisions 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."
Malm said he had contacted the Home Office seeking an explanation but had yet to receive a substantive response. He described the move as a "severe restriction on the free exchange of ideas".
He stressed that he was not a member of Palestine Action, had never publicly endorsed it, and had given it no financial support. "The only link to Palestine Action is her as a person," he said, accusing the UK government of ascribing "guilt by association".
Malm acknowledged that he had previously described the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 — in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage — as "fundamentally an act of liberation". He made those remarks during a December 2023 talk, in which he also condemned the "deplorable" killing of civilians.
He said it was possible those comments had contributed to the Home Office's decision, but noted that his views had been publicly available for a long time, including when he was last permitted to enter the UK in May.
"I have been going regularly to the UK for decades. My position on Palestine has always been public," Malm said. "I haven't said anything in public about Palestine during these intervening months or written anything about it. The only thing that could have caused this is that I was due to be on a panel on Wednesday evening, where I would talk to Huda Ammori of Palestine Action."
He added: "I don't expect the British state to agree with me on Palestine or climate or anything. What I expect the British state to do is to continue to let me enter the country and to discuss with colleagues, with people who disagree with me - as I have done for years."
Malm used an ETA during his May visit, which would normally have allowed him to travel to the UK again later in the year without reapplying. He said he received no prior warning that his authorisation was at risk before the cancellation email arrived.
The Home Office informed him that he would need to apply for a standard visitor visa if he wished to travel to the UK. However, the standard processing time for such a visa is three weeks, meaning Malm would be unable to obtain one in time for the planned event.
Tribune editor Oliver Eagleton criticised the decision, saying: "Andy Burnham's 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."
The cancellation comes amid what critics describe as a broader crackdown on pro-Palestine activists in the UK. Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation under the previous government led by Keir Starmer, placing it on the same legal list as groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL. The proscription has been condemned by rights groups including Amnesty International.
More than 3,850 people have reportedly been arrested for publicly supporting the group since the ban came into force.
Irish novelist Sally Rooney, whose books were recently withdrawn from sale in the UK following her public support for Palestine Action, described Malm as a "brilliant and influential" intellectual. "For the UK government to deny him entry to Britain is not only an outrageous attack on a respected climate expert, but a sad and frightening act of cultural self-harm," she said.
Malm's published works include How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire and The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth.
