I am a Turkish citizen. The Home Office cancelled my visa for simply sharing a readily available document that questions Israeli atrocity propaganda about 7 October 2023. 

I have a PhD in AI and robotics from a leading British university and had secured a Global Talent Visa having been identified as a leader in digital technology. I had been living in the UK with my wife and two young daughters for the past 4 years.

In January 2024, I shared a document on a Whatapp group chat entitled 'Our Narrative - Operation Al Aqsa Flood' which had been published by Hamas' media office and distributed to media outlets across the world. The document provides historic context prior to the attacks of 7 October 2023, denies allegations of atrocities against civilians while admitting ‘some faults’ in the implementation of the attacks, and calls for a transparent international investigation of both Hamas and Israel.

Direct links to the document can be found on Israeli media sites including Haaretz, the Times of Israel, and The Jerusalem Post as well as other international media outlets like Al Jazeera English, Anadolu Agency, Jordan News, and the UK-based The New Arab. The document is also included in the appendices of a book about Hamas published last year by Helena Cobban and Rami F. Khouri, which can be purchased on Amazon.

In April 2024, I was randomly selected for questioning at Stansted Airport on return from a holiday to Turkey. My phone was examined and I was asked about my religious and political views for 6 hours before being allowed to return home. I did not hear from the police again after that.

Many months later, while I was in Turkey on holiday, the Home Office wrote to me to tell me that they had cancelled my visa because I had shared the Hamas document on a Whatsapp group. My family also had their visas cancelled. After four years in the UK, we were suddenly stranded outside, away from our home, with no source of income, and facing the gravest of allegations.

This is clearly a move by the Home Office to suppress freedom of speech and ensure that the only version of events that remains in the public domain about the 7th of October is the Israeli one, complete with fairy tales about beheaded and baked babies. They are punishing me for daring to even share another version of the events of that day and use me as an example to scare others.

The Home Office said that by sharing the document, it was almost certain that I had committed a terrorism offence and that it was highly likely I was a Hamas supporter, had an extremist mindset,  that I had shared the document to radicalise others, and that I pose a threat to national security.

If this was the case, then why did the police - who had examined my phone AND questioned me for 6 hours without a lawyer - not arrest me?

Why did the police not search my home? 

Why did the police never come to question me again or even stop me at the airport on my way out to Turkey? 

They are not even suggesting that there is other material they have that indicates I have done anything wrong, just a single share of one document. 

I refuse to be scared.

I refuse to remain silent.

I have started a legal challenge against the cancellation of my visa and hope that a victory in my case will empower others who have been similarly affected to come forward.

I am looking to raise an initial £10,000 to cover my legal costs for this case for my solicitors, my barrister, the court fees and an expert witness. 

Donations will go directly from the donor to my lawyers via Crowd Justice - none of the money will come to me. 

If the money raised is more than I need for my case or I am successful and my lawyers recover their costs from the Home Office, the funds will be used to support legal challenges brought by individuals who have lost their job or had their visas cancelled on account of their support for Palestine via their CrowdJustice campaign, in accordance with the platform's 'unused funds' policy.

I am very grateful for any support you can give me to overturn this ludicrous decision and return with my family to the UK.