US commentators Cenk Uygur, Hasan Piker say UK barred them over Israel-related remarks

US political commentator Cenk Uygur and online broadcaster Hasan Piker said Sunday that they had been barred from entering the UK, claiming British authorities cited their public comments about Israel as the reason for the decision.

Uygur, co-founder of The Young Turks, a US-based online political news and commentary network, said he learned of the restriction while attempting to board a flight to London, where he was scheduled to attend the SXSW London festival and deliver a speech at Oxford.

As part of a series of posts on the US social media platform X, Uygur said British authorities informed him that he had been deemed "a serious risk to the public order."

"The British government is saying they're banning me because I am 'a serious risk to the public order' due to my criticism of Israel," he wrote.

He also said authorities considered his assertions regarding Israeli influence in US politics to be antisemitic, despite his insistence that his remarks were factual.

Uygur argued that he was not being denied entry over comments about the UK itself but rather over statements made in the United States concerning Israel.

"This is absolutely Kafkaesque," he wrote, criticizing what he described as a contradiction in the government's reasoning.

Piker, a political commentator and popular live streamer, later said in a post on X that his UK visa had also been revoked as he prepared to travel to the same event.

"The UK has revoked my visa as well," he wrote, alleging that the decision was linked to his criticism of Israel.

The reported restrictions come weeks after British authorities barred the US rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, from entering the country, citing his history of antisemitic remarks. British officials defended that decision despite appeals from event organizers and public statements by the artist seeking reconsideration.