The UK rightly bans Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the country

Young Turks [the 'k' is pronounced as a 'd'] founder Cenk Uygur and his nephew, the left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, both virulent anti-Semites, have discovered that the politics of open borders and unrestricted movement occasionally collide with the realities of national sovereignty.

Both men announced Monday that they had been barred from entering the United Kingdom ahead of their planned appearances at the upcoming South by Southwest festival in London. The British government reportedly revoked their visas over concerns related to their public rhetoric on Israel, a remarkable development given the contemporary West's usual reluctance to police incendiary political speech.

According to Uygur, the British Home Office designated him a "serious risk to the public order" after he claimed that "Israel controls the American government through donations to 94% of Congress." Whether one views such remarks as criticism, conspiracy theory, or something in between, British authorities evidently concluded that importing them was not in the public interest as riots and destruction tend to occur when anti-Zionist/anti-Semitism are brought forth in the public arena.

The response from the loudmouth Uygur was immediate and characteristically dramatic.

"Are we free anymore?" he asked in a post on X. "This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!"

In a subsequent thread, Uygur portrayed the visa ban as a badge of honor.

 
"It is an honor to have made Israel's enemies list. I'm very proud to have fought against their genocide."

"The mighty United Kingdom is afraid of speech that shows you who's responsible for those war crimes. But no amount of censorship will get us to stop telling the truth."

Piker, who generally favors fewer words than his uncle, offered his own interpretation of events. He claimed the United Kingdom had revoked his visa at "the behest of Israel."

"The West is betraying 'liberal values' for a genocidal fascist foreign government," Piker wrote. "Soon we will all become Israel." 

What a piece of human excrement this man is.

The episode highlights one of the more curious contradictions of modern political activism. Many of those who insist that nations have little right to control their borders become deeply indignant when a nation exercises precisely that right against them.

The controversy arrives amid additional scrutiny surrounding the execrable Piker. 

Last week, Fox News reported that the U.S. Treasury Department had subpoenaed Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, a self-loathing Jewish woman, as part of an investigation into whether activists violated U.S. sanctions during a trip to Cuba. 

According to the report, investigators are examining the activities of roughly 40 American citizens who allegedly coordinated with foreign nationals, including Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, who recently gained attention after being detained by Israel following his participation in a Gaza-bound flotilla. He had been accused of inappropriate sexual activity, which he denied. and claimed he had been tortured by Israel, which is not at all likely. 

Further subpoenas are reportedly expected.

Fox also reported that those under investigation include Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar. Sources told the network that investigators are examining whether Omar herself may have helped finance her daughter's travel.

For years, anti-Israel activists have portrayed themselves as dissidents bravely speaking truth to power. What appears to have unsettured Uygur and Piker is the realization that governments, including Western governments, sometimes retain the authority to decide who may cross their borders and under what conditions. Whether that authority has been exercised wisely in this case is a matter for debate. That the authority exists should not come as a surprise.

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Federal Officials Subpoena Hasan Piker And Medea Benjamin For The Crime Of Vacationing In Cuba While Pretending It Wasn't A Communist Propaganda Tour

WASHINGTON—In a shocking development that has left the activist community clutching their Che Guevara tote bags, federal officials have subpoenaed Twitch's premier champagne socialist Hasan Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin as part of a widening investigation into Americans who may have accidentally violated U.S. sanctions by, sources say, "going to Cuba and handing stuff to the regime."

According to reports, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, those notorious buzzkills, issued subpoenas tied to the "Nuestra América Convoy," a heartwarming coalition of trust-fund revolutionaries, Instagram influencers, and professional America-haters who embarked on a solidarity cruise to the island paradise where bread lines are considered performance art.

Investigators are reportedly looking into whether these brave freedom fighters illegally financed their tropical Marxist cosplay, coordinated logistics with the Cuban government, delivered "aid" that somehow never reaches actual Cubans, or stayed at regime-connected hotels that appear on the State Department's "Definitely Not For Tourists" list. The probe is part of the Trump administration's cruel and unusual crackdown on people who love authoritarianism but hate filling out paperwork.

Piker, the internet's most beloved tankie who streams from a house his uncle bought him, proudly documented the trip on Instagram with the courageous caption "I’M GOING TO CUBA."

He was spotted high-fiving CodePink activists and networking with organizations linked to Neville Roy Singham, the capitalist billionaire who's turned "funding communism" into a full-time hobby. Up to 40 Americans could face scrutiny, meaning the feds are coming for everyone who thought "bringing medical supplies to Cuba" was a personality.

In response, Piker took to social media with the calm, measured tone of a man whose entire brand is being mad online: "the american govt would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we’ve starved, than punish the epstein class." Critics noted that "delivering aid" in this context apparently means posing for photos while the Cuban people continue their 65-year experiment with bread shortages.

Medea Benjamin, meanwhile, delivered the most unintentionally hilarious humanitarian defense of the year: "Taking medical supplies to pediatric hospitals in Cuba is now a crime? Saving the lives of babies is a crime?" This from the co-founder of CodePink, an organization whose other major cause is ensuring as many American babies as possible never make it to a pediatric hospital in the first place. The irony was so thick you could spread it on regime-approved toast.

Medea Benjamin

CodePink has long maintained that abortion activism, anti-capitalism, hating Israel, climate doomsaying, and screaming at U.S. soldiers are all part of the same sacred "global feminist struggle." Their manifesto reportedly equates the "war machine" with "patriarchy," scolds Western feminists for not caring enough about Gaza, and dreams of a utopia where American bases vanish, Israeli walls crumble, and uteruses achieve full diplomatic immunity, preferably under a nice red flag.

Neither Piker nor Benjamin has been charged with anything yet. They're simply being asked questions about why they keep treating hostile dictatorships like ideological summer camps while calling it "humanitarian work." Piker, who once said America deserved 9/11 and has spent years explaining why various communist hellholes are actually worker paradises, seems genuinely shocked that the government noticed.

For now, the subpoenas represent a bold new frontier in federal enforcement: the radical notion that maybe you shouldn't fly to enemy nations, coordinate with their governments, and then act surprised when someone checks the receipts. The Babylon Bee will continue monitoring this story as it develops, or until Hasan has to stream from a slightly less luxurious location.

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Anti-Semitic activists to pay $182,000 for falsely accusing rabbi of stalking

A Washington, D.C. court has ordered prominent anti-Israel/anti-Semitic activists to pay a rabbi $182,000 for falsely accusing him in court of “stalking” after he prayed at the Israel embassy, which they staked out for months in a protest.

Hazami Barmada, who “held several high-level positions at the United Nations” and in 2023 “joined the faculty of George Washington University,” along with Atefeh Rokhvand, the founder of Teachers Against Genocide, tried to misuse the court system. They asked for a restraining order against Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, but last week, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia’s Domestic Violence Division said no. The restraining order would have stopped the rabbi from going near the Israel embassy, where the two women were leading a nonstop protest.

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The judge, John McCabe, watched a video that didn’t match what the activists claimed in their legal papers. Instead, it showed Rabbi Herzfeld praying peacefully at the embassy while Barmada made fun of him using a megaphone. In his ruling, which hadn’t been reported before, the judge wrote that Barmada wasn’t afraid of the rabbi—she even called his being there “hilarious.”

The ruling also said, “There is no evidence that Respondent ever threatened the Petitioners. There is no evidence that he ever followed, monitored or placed them under surveillance. The only times he ever saw them was at the location of the protests on three occasions (only two with regard to Ms. Rokhvand). The evidence suggests that his presence on those occasions was not an attempt to locate Petitioners or any other particular individuals; he was going to the embassy to pray.” Basically, the court found that the rabbi wasn’t bothering anyone—he was just there to pray.

After the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, Hazami Barmada and Atefeh Rokhvand started almost nonstop protests at Israel’s embassy in Washington and outside the home of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The court ruling shared some details about Barmada: “Hazami Barmada is 40 years old. She received an MPA degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School and has worked at the Aspen Institute.” It also noted, “She stated that she sometimes protested at the home of (now former) U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in northern Virginia, at times throwing fake blood in the direction of motor vehicles entering or exiting his home.”

The judge pointed out that Barmada and Rokhvand are experienced protesters who often act in bold, confrontational ways—stuff they say is protected as free speech. So, they should’ve known that Rabbi Herzfeld’s actions were allowed too. Because they tried to stop him with a weak lawsuit, the judge made them pay the rabbi’s legal fees under the anti-SLAPP Act. That law stops people from using lawsuits to silence others who disagree with them on big issues.

The anti-Israel activists claimed the rabbi stalked them, pointing to three days he was at the embassy. But the judge found problems with their story. Rokhvand wasn’t even there one of those days, and “Barmada’s description in her petition of the events of March 21 did not accurately describe what had occurred,” he wrote. 

Their claims didn’t hold up.

“It was only upon observing the video evidence that the Court was able to clearly see that the Respondent’s activities were not even directed at the Petitioner in particular (other than his agreeing with her that inhumanity is awful no matter who is to blame), that Petitioner Barmada and her fellow protesters were far louder and more confrontational than Respondent, and that Petitioner Barmada was not in any way intimidated by the Respondent as she remarked about how ‘hilarious’ he and his companions were while speaking into a megaphone,” the ruling said.

On the second day, May 2, Rabbi Herzfeld drove by in a car and asked through the window, “Why do you support the raping of innocent women?” The judge wrote, “The Petitioners may very well have been offended by what the Respondent said on May 2, just as the Respondent was likely offended when Petitioner Barmada called him a Nazi and a supporter of terrorizing children on March 21, 2024. However, as Petitioner’s own attorneys asserted,” these harsh words, while upsetting, are allowed under free speech rights.

On the third day, May 7, Rokhvand said the rabbi “went through my stuff.” But the judge said video proved he only “simply directed his companion to take photographs of [a] basket of ear plugs.” The rabbi explained that protesters used those ear plugs to protect their own ears while blasting loud noise at others. The judge also noted that the basket wasn’t even close to Rokhvand.

Then, in May, the rabbi took Barmada and Rokhvand to federal court, claiming they hurt his hearing. He said that after he went to the embassy on a religious holiday to pray for Hamas’ hostages to be freed, their group attacked him with sound. The lawsuit said, “The physical attack consisted of using speakers, sirens, and other sound-emitting devices to produce siren-like sounds in the range of 95-100 decibels—more than 1,000 times the noise level permitted under D.C. law—with the purpose and intent to injure Rabbi Herzfeld.”

The following week, the protesters filed the action in city court against Herzfeld.

In an email to conservative outlet The Daily Wire, Barmada and Rokhvand suggested that the rabbi’s lawyer, Steven Lieberman, was being greedy, saying the $182,000 figure was “over-inflated legal fees.”

“We were shocked by the tone and findings outlined in the subsequent order granting outrageous legal fees. Albeit ultimately deemed ‘protected speech,’ the evidence at trial showed Rabbi Herzfeld and his cohorts, on multiple occasions, came inappropriately close to females and made offensive and vile remarks to intimidate them, e.g. ‘why do you support rape,'” they said. “We will appeal, and look forward to a final ruling on the matter.”

The statement came through their lawyer, Asim Humayun, who has posted on Instagram calling for a “registry for Americans in IDF” and said he wears a Palestinian flag pin as a “piece of s—t repellant.” In one photo, Media Benjamin—a well-known CodePink activist famous for confronting pro-Israel lawmakers—was spotted at a hearing tied to the stalking case.

Early in the legal battle, a Washington, D.C. judge issued a temporary restraining order against the rabbi. Afterward, Humayun shared a smiling picture with Barmada, writing: “We had to take out a restraining order against a rabbi who keeps coming and harassing us, has wrongfully sued us, and lied about us in the news. We won’t be silenced!”

Herzfeld might still get the $182,000 he’s owed. Even though Barmada acts like a radical living in a tent during the nonstop protest outside Blinken’s house, court records show she actually lives in a $1.5 million home with an indoor pool.

That shouldn't be surprising.

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