LONDON (JTA) — A list of 16 people barred from the United Kingdom because of their extreme views includes a right-wing Jewish activist.
Michael Guzofsky was among those on the list of names released Tuesday by Britain’s Home Secretary. The American-born Guzofsky used to be the leader of a militant Jewish group that had been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The list includes only those who were refused entry in the past six months. Another six names were not published on the grounds that identifying them would be contrary to “the public interest.”
Half of those listed are Muslim clerics, writers and political advocates, who are described by the Home Office as “engaging in unacceptable behavior” by “seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence.” They include Yunis al-Astal, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza; Safwat Hijazi, an Egyptian cleric; and Samir al-Quntar, who was released from an Israeli jail recently 30 years after his arrest following the 1979 murder of five Israelis in Nahariya, including a 4-year-old girl.
Among the Americans on the list is San Francisco-based radio talk-show host Michael A. Weiner, known to radio audiences as Michael Savage, who told his listeners that he hired seven lawyers to check out the possibility of taking British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to court for defamation. The radio presenter, who is described by the British Home Office as “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence,” claimed that he never advocated violence.
The list also includes two Russian skinheads.
