Why I wrote an expert report supporting the case to deproscribe Hamas in the UK
Pro-Palestinian supporters march in London on 28 May 2024
Tarek Younis writes in Middle East Eye on 1 July 2025:
ll violence is political, as is all healing. The two are intimately related. An understanding of violence is integral to mental health.
As a scholar of state violence, a psychologist and an anti-racist community activist, I will chart why I supported the legal bid to deproscribe Hamas through an expert report, and why I vehemently oppose the proscription of Palestine Action not least on free speech grounds.
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I have lost count of the parents I’ve had to console, whose children have been punished for speaking about Palestine in school; or the mental health professionals who have been referred to the Health and Care Professions Council for sharing posts about Palestine on social media; or the students who are going through hearings after mobilising for Palestine on campus.
We are facing an epidemic of repression, and the mental health implications are devastating. It is a climate of suffocation, anxiety and paranoia.
Among the many people outraged by the Gaza genocide – a significant portion of the British population, if polls are any indication – few are spared the anxiety associated with sharing that feeling in their place of work or education.