Detained in US for speech, a UK commentator speaks out: ‘It’s a tragedy of justice’

Sami Hamdi was detained after a pro-Israel group released a video purportedly showing him praising the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel

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British political commentator who was detained by immigration authorities in the US over his pro-Palestinian advocacy said shortly after returning to the UK on Thursday that his detention was “less an attack on me and more an attack on Americans and the rights of Americans themselves”.

Sami Hamdi arrived in London on Thursday , three weeks after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at San Francisco international airport while on a speaking tour in the US. He agreed to leave the country after being guaranteed the right to apply for a new US visa, which he says he plans to do.

“What they want is to ensure that people like us don’t go to America,” he told the Guardian in an interview shortly after returning home, citing the detention earlier this year of foreign students over their political activity. “And we will defy them and we will exert our constitutional rights and speak truth against hatred.”