London gallery delays Ai Weiwei show over Israel-Hamas tweet

Ai Weiwei said he had ‘attempted to be objective and neutral without moral judgment, accusations, or evaluation of human actions’ in his tweet. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP

The artist Ai Weiwei has defended the importance of free speech after a London gallery put his show on hold over a tweet about the Israel-Hamas war.

The exhibition of new works by the Chinese dissident, which was due to open at the Lisson gallery this week, was indefinitely put on hold after a tweet posted in response to a follower’s question on X which has since been deleted.