UK Revokes Climate Academic's Travel Authorisation

Malm's book advocates for sabotage and property destruction as justified activism.

The Home Office confirmed electronic travel authorisation refusals are based on potential risk to UK society. It cannot discuss individual cases. Palestine Action is proscribed as a terrorist group in the UK.

Malm received notification that his presence in the UK was not considered conducive to the public good. He claims the only plausible rationale for the ban was his advertised conference appearance next Wednesday alongside Ammori.

Malm believes the ban makes him somehow a terrorist or associated with terrorism, thereby barring him from travelling to the UK. He emphasized that he has not publicly endorsed, promoted, or financially supported Palestine Action.

Malm suggested the decision was linked to a panel event where he was scheduled to speak about the war in Iran. His description of the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 as an “act of liberation” could also be a reason for the ban.

Malm, a senior lecturer in human ecology at Lund University in Sweden, claims this ban represents a major trend: a drift into authoritarianism targeting the Palestine movement, the climate movement, and others opposing destructive global forces. The event was to discuss "Washington’s global reign of terror and Britain’s role in reinforcing it" and was timed to coincide with a supreme court challenge to the ban on Palestine Action.

British authorities previously prevented Turkish-American commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the UK in June. Britain has also placed travel bans on far-right Israeli ministers and barred Israeli nationals from attending a defense studies college in London.

Clive Lewis stated, "If ministers have evidence Andreas Malm is dangerous, produce it. Otherwise, this looks like political censorship dressed up as public safety."