Starmer criticised for welcoming Egyptian activist
After historical social media messages revealed a campaigner reportedly calling for Zionists to be killed, Sir Keir Starmer has been chastised for welcoming the arrival of Egyptian pro-democracy activist Ala Abdel Fattah to the United Kingdom. After being released from jail, the dual British national left Egypt this week. After posting a Facebook post about torture in the United States, he was found guilty of 2021 of spreading fake news. The prime minister was
delighted
serious error of judgment.to learn that the activist had arrived in the United Kingdom to be reunited with his family. Sir Keir's remarks, according to shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, were a
Jenrick praised Abdel Fattah's messages, which advocated the murder of Zionists and police, and said that the prime minister's message amounted to a personal, public endorsement
of the activist.
effusive welcome" in the form. The activist's messages were not brought to the prime minister's attention until they were announced in recent days, according to the BBC, and the government finds them to be abhorrent.No one should be detained arbitrarily, not for nonviolent opposition. In a letter, Prime Minister David Cameron should not place the authority of his office behind someone whose own words cross into the language of bigotry and bloodshed. Following Abdel Fattah's return, Cabinet ministers, including Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Justice Secretary David Lammy, shared similar tweets of support. The Jewish Leadership Council, a charity that represents Jewish organisations around the United Kingdom, has sluggishly welcomed the UK government's
Abdel Fattah's release in September came after a long campaign by his family, including actresses Dame Judi Dench and Olivia Colman, as well as British government lobbying. He had spent more than a decade in prison, including being sentenced to a five-year term in December 2021 after a hearing that human rights organizations said was grossly unfair. He is a British citizen,
the previous Conservative administration had lobbied for the activist's release. It has been a long-standing priority under successive governments for him to be released from detention and to see him reunited with his family in the United Kingdom. Jenrick was also accused by a Labour source of attempting to rewrite history for his own political gain. Abdel Fattah, a writer, scholar, and software programmer, came to fame during a 2011 revolt that compelled Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, to resign. Abdel Fattah was nominated for a European human rights award, the Sakharov Prize, in 2014, but it was withdrawn due to a series of tweets attacking Israel he had shared in 2012. He said his remarks were part of a private dialogue
that took place during an Israeli assault in Gaza and had been taken out of context. Abdel Fattah's 14-year-old son, who lives in Brighton, has been reunited with his 14-month-old brother who lived in Brighton after being barred from a travel ban list issued by Egyptian authorities that held him in the country for three months after being recalled from prison. After his release, he told the BBC from Cairo that he is learning how to relive life.
he said. Much better than most people would have expected.I'm doing much better than I should have expected,
