Prof. David Miller detained after attending Sayyed Nasrallah’s funeral
3 Min Read
David Miller has detailed that eight officers had been deployed to detain him—an excessive show of force for a journalist returning from a reporting assignment.
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A photo taken by David Miller during his participation in the funeral of assassinated Hezbollah leaders (@Tracking_Power)
British police detained and later released David Miller, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath.
Miller, an investigative researcher, broadcaster, and academic, is the founder and co-director of the lobbying watchdog Spinwatch and the editor of Powerbase.info. He traveled to Beirut as a journalist to cover the funeral processions of assassinated Hezbollah leaders and document the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.
And here, only 300 metres from the Zionist border in South Lebanon is the destruction deliberately caused by blowing up houses, bulldozing, or otherwise attacking them.
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) February 23, 2025
This is Zionism.#DismantleZionism https://t.co/pk7jA2ei3H pic.twitter.com/qac87ifpSA
This is, I think, the second pass of the Zionist jets over the funeral.
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) February 23, 2025
Pathetic and counter-productive Hasbara and the crowd rightly roared at them.
To counter the Zionist aerial supremacy it’s an urgent matter for the resistance to secure better air defence capacity. https://t.co/CMlUjX0kcc
However, upon his return to the UK, he was detained at Heathrow Airport by British counterterrorism officers and questioned under the Terrorism Act.
A bit of news from me on how the Zionists bounced the Counter Terrorism Command into detaining me at Heathrow Airport:
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) February 27, 2025
At 21.32 on the evening of Monday 24 February I stepped off a plane from Istanbul to Heathrow and into the terminal building. In front of me were a wide circle…
According to Miller, he was intercepted by a group of officers as soon as he stepped off his flight from Istanbul. They seized his passport and questioned him about his travels, despite already knowing his full itinerary. He noted that eight officers had been deployed to detain him—an excessive show of force for a journalist returning from a reporting assignment. After three and a half hours of questioning, he was released.
In a similar case, the Executive Chairman of the American Communist Party Haz Al-Din was detained and interrogated for five hours by the Department of Homeland Security upon returning to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport after attending the funeral of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
In a statement posted on X, Haz Al-Din condemned what he described as an attempt to suppress independent perspectives on the Middle East. He argued that Americans have the right to understand the impact of US foreign policy and funding, particularly regarding military aid to "Israel".
Upon arriving home last night, I was detained and interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security for 5 hours at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
— Haz Al-Din 🇷🇺 (@InfraHaz) February 25, 2025
Unfortunately for the Zionist jackals calling for our persecution, our country at least retains a veneer of… pic.twitter.com/HIOxSb38S0
He rejected the portrayal of Hezbollah as "terrorists", instead asserting that Lebanese civilians are victims of US-backed Zionist aggression. He also accused pro-"Israel" lobbies of attempting to suppress free speech and intimidate Americans who challenge mainstream narratives.
His detention comes amid growing concerns over the targeting of pro-Palestinian voices in the US, with rights groups warning of increasing crackdowns on political expression and dissent.
Not an isolated incident
These two incidents are part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices in the UK and the US, where several journalists and activists have faced harassment. Others targeted include Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, Asa Winstanley, and Kit Klarenberg, all of whom have reported critically on "Israel".
First it was @KitKlarenberg , @VanessaBeeley, @richimedhurst, @swilkinsonbc and @AsaWinstanley.
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) February 28, 2025
Then it was @AliAbunimah in Switzerland. We only just produced a show on Ali’s case last week (see below).
And now they came for me.
Zionism is a poison. It will destroy everything… https://t.co/i4KEr26WCF
Miller, a regular writer for Al Mayadeen English, has long been outspoken in his criticism of Zionism and the UK’s unwavering support for "Israel", often at great personal cost. He was dismissed from his post at Bristol University in 2021 following accusations of "anti-Semitism"—charges he has consistently denied as politically motivated.
Rights groups warn that such actions represent a growing trend of intimidation aimed at silencing pro-Palestinian voices, with troubling implications for press freedom and civil liberties. Meanwhile, the UK mainstream media have largely ignored these developments, raising concerns about collusion or self-censorship in the face of political pressure.
