Suppressing free speech on Palestine

JVL Introduction

Mehdi Hasan highlights the dramatic clampdown on free speech, especially in the UK and the USA – but it is wider than that, especially when it comes to opposing the Israel, UK and US governments’ policy and actions towards Palestinians. Hasan argues that the “very real threat from rising authoritarianism in the US and the UK…(from) the opposition to the destruction of Gaza – and now also Iran and Lebanon – cannot be separated from the defence of our democratic freedoms at home. They are part and parcel of the same struggle.”

He goes on to argue that “A genocide abroad is helping usher in fascism at home.” As more and more people in the USA and UK have stopped supporting Israel and now support justice for Palestinians, those in power who continue to support Israel realise that they have lost the argument and so they do not want the argument to happen.

This article was originally published by The Guardian on Mon 8 Jun 2026. Read the original here.