Jewish people sign letter supporting Dr Rahmeh Aladwan

This article has been amended to reflect updated figures.

More than a hundred British Jews have signed a statement of support for NHS medic Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, who has been relentlessly targeted by the Starmer regime and Israel lobby for raids, arrests, harassment and prosecution, along with attempts to remove her medical licence – and by the Israel lobby with threats of violence and murder.

Dr Rahmeh Aladwan: now receiving support from Jewish people

The Starmer regime has specifically targeted Dr Rahmeh Aladwan for describing Zionism as ‘Jewish supremacy’, a description that can hardly be said to be inaccurate given the existence of Israel as an apartheid ethnostate busily stealing more land from its non-Jewish neighbours, and which certainly does not apply to non-Zionists. It has has been used by academics, media and think-tanks to describe the Zionist ideology – and fascist Israeli ministers like Bezalel Smotrich have even said that international law is for gentiles and does not apply to the ‘chosen people’.

And many British Jews agree. In the first few hours it has been available, dozens have signed a public statement supporting Dr Rahmeh Aladwan and condemning the state’s persecution of her and the Islamophobic actions of UK PM Keir Starmer, his shiny Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the General Medical Council. The statement reads:

Statement in Support of Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, the British-Palestinian Doctor Who is Being Persecuted by the General Medical Council and Wes Streeting

We the undersigned, being Jewish or of Jewish origin, wish to protest at the abusive actions and discriminatory treatment that a British-Palestinian doctor, Rahmeh Aladwan, has experienced at the hands of the General Medical Council and the Secretary of State for Health & Care, Wes Streeting MP.

Dr Radwan was first referred by the GMC to a hearing of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) on 27 August, because of comments that she had made which they deemed anti-Semitic. The MPTS found that there was no case to answer.

Immediately Streeting made threats of legal action if the decision was not reversed. Instead of ignoring Streeting’s threats and bluster the GMC re-referred Dr Aladwan to the MPTS on 3 October and a hearing was scheduled for 27 October.

In the meantime Dr Aladwan was arrested by the Metropolitan Police [MPS] on 25 October. Among the allegations were ‘incitement to racial hatred’ by calling for the eradication of the State of Israel at a demonstration outside the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on 21st July.

Since when is it anti-Semitic to call for the eradication of an Apartheid state be it in South Africa or Israel/Palestine? Was the eradication of the Nazi state anti-German?

We wish to state that we are opposed to the weaponisation of anti-Semitism against critics of the Israeli state and its genocide in Gaza. This ‘Labour’ government under Keir Starmer has deliberately set out to associate Jews in Britain with the genocide of the Palestinians of Gaza. We consider that that is anti-Semitic.

When Starmer stated that banning violent Tel Aviv Maccabi fans from an Aston Villa football game was the equivalent of banning British Jews he gave the game away. Starmer has supported Israel’s genocide every inch of the way in the past two years whilst engaging in genocide denial. He turned a blind eye to the racist chants of Maccabi fans such as ‘Death to the Arabs’, ‘There are no school in Gaza because there are no children left’ and ‘We will take your girls, when we rape them we will shout today is death!’. Anti-Palestinian racism is of no concern to Starmer.

We are sick and tired of Jews being used by racist politicians such as Starmer and Streeting as an excuse to continue to support the genocide of Palestinians and Israeli war crimes. Those who use Jews in this way are themselves anti-Semitic.

We urge the MPTS to uphold its decision of 25 September that Dr Aladwan had no case to answer and to refuse to be intimidated by threats from the government or the Zionist lobby.

This does not mean that we agree with everything that Dr Rahmeh has said. However as someone who has lost friends and family in Gaza, Rahmeh is entitled to freedom of speech without the interference of Starmer’s Thought Police in the MPS. Given their abysmal record, the Metropolitan Police are in no position to accuse others of racism.

The statement’s author, Brighton-based Jewish anti-genocide campaigner Tony Greenstein, said of Dr Rahmeh Aladwan:

Given that the pretext for striking her off the medical register is that old hoary chestnut ‘anti-Semitism’ I am asking Jewish people or people of Jewish origin to sign the statement here.

Please share and if you know other Jewish people who may be willing to sign please ask them.

Please do NOT sign it if you are not Jewish or of Jewish origin.

Featured image via the Canary