CAA to bring court challenge after ‘Jewish supremacy’ doctor allowed to keep licence
Decision by Medical Practitioner and Tribunal Service described as 'as “one of the most egregious examples we have encountered of a regulator failing in its duty'
The Campaign Against Antisemitism has announced it will bring a court challenge against a recent decision by the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS) not to suspend the licence of a doctor notorious for rants about “Jewish supremacy”, with the group describing the case as “one of the most egregious examples we have encountered of a regulator failing in its duty to protect the public.”
Last month, the MPTS heard the case of Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, a self-described “British-Palestinian” doctor now infamous within the British Jewish community for such claims as “the UK is occupied and controlled by Jewish supremacy – in fact, most Christian majority countries are”, and that the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a large number of Jewish patients given its location, is a “Jewish Supremacy Cesspit”.
The General Medical Council had applied for a suspension of Aladwan’s medical licence while it conducted an investigation into her conduct. An MPTS panel ruled that the doctor – also known for statements such as ““I don’t condemn Hamas. I don’t condemn October 7. I don’t condemn armed resistance to Occupation. I condemn ‘Israel’” – should keep her licence while the GMC investigation continues.
Aladwan, who was a member of Palestine Action before the organisation was proscribed as a terrorist group, has also targeted Jewish schools with her invective, tweeting that ““The total number of anti-supremacist (anti-Zionist) Jewish schools in the UK is ZERO. There are 136 Jewish schools in Britain, many of which are funded by our taxes, where 36,064 British Jewish children are taught that they are superior to non-Jews, that they have the right to colonise Palestine and are groomed through birthright trips to become colonisers, upholders of apartheid, and genocidal IOF terrorists. This has to stop.” At a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Leeds during August, she claimed that a quarter of UK MPs are “collaborators and foreign agents” for Israel.
In its statement on Monday, the CAA confirmed that it had notified the GMC “of its intention to challenge in court, via judicial review, the decision not to impose conditions on Dr Rahmeh Aladwan while she is under investigation for misconduct.
“The decision to permit Dr Aladwan to continue to practise without restrictions is what led the Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, to say that he had ‘no confidence’ in the medical regulator”, CAA went on to say, referring to an exclusive published by Jewish News last month.
“Despite Dr Aladwan’s repeated use of social media and public appearances to wage what amounts to a campaign of hatred against British Jews, a hearing of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service on 25th September determined that she had done nothing to ‘undermine public confidence in the medical profession,’ and that her abusive rhetoric against British Jews did not ‘amount to bullying or harassment.’ The tribunal also concluded that ‘a reasonable and fully informed member of the public would not be alarmed or concerned to learn that Dr Aladwan had been permitted to continue in unrestricted medical practice.’
“This is one of the most egregious examples we have encountered of a regulator failing in its duty to protect the public. It is inconceivable that a Jewish person would feel safe receiving treatment from this doctor. The steps we have taken today are further evidence of our commitment to protect the Jewish community as the UK’s institutions continue to fail it.”
In the immediate aftermath of the terror attack against Heaton Park Synagogue last week, Aladwan’s responded to news that hospitals in Manchester had instructed other patients not to attend A&E unless it was urgent by saying that step was “extremely concerning. A hospital is a pillar of civic society, a sanctuary of care that must remain universally accessible. When the State commands these institutions to close their doors to all but the most critically injured, it weaponizes public health and safety. It effectively places a specific community’s security above the healthcare of the entire population…This action frames an entire group or community as so separate, so uniquely threatened or threatening, that the normal functioning of society must be halted for them.”
In its ruling, the MPTS tribunal set out examples which it said “may justify interference with a doctor’s right to freedom of expression, particularly when they identify themselves as a doctor”, which included “Allegations that a doctor is promoting and/or spreading misinformation which has the potential to harm public health or undermine public confidence in the medical profession.” The tribunal said that it “did not consider that any of these factors have been met on the information provided to it as at this point.”
In comments made after her hearing, Aladwan claimed that the tribunal had “confirmed that I am a semite. Palestinians are semites. We shouldn’t use antisemitism, it should be anti-Jewish hatred, and nothing we say in order to save the Palestinians from the Israeli Jewish society and Occupation forces that are supporting or carrying out the Holocaust is anti-Jewish hatred.”
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