Mick Hartley

From Jewish News – The Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service rules that tweets previously described by a judge as having ‘supported, justified and even glorified terrorist violence by Hamas’ were not even to be deemed ‘grossly offensive’

The Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service has let off an NHS doctor accused of posting objectively antisemitic and grossly offensive comments on social media on 7 October 2023, saying it “did not find that…[her]conduct constituted misconduct which was serious.”

.On 7 October 2023, Dr Menatalla Elwan shared video footage of people fleeing the Nova festival, which Hamas had attacked earlier that day. Alongside the footage, Elwan wrote: “If it was ur home, u would stay and fight. U wouldn’t just run away”, alongside a blushing smiling emoji.

In a second post a few hours later, Dr Elwan said: “Israel was never a country. They illegally occupied Palestine. Would u support Russia invading Ukraine? Israel kill Palestinians everyday, didn’t see anyone caring. Also there are no civilians in Israel.”…

In a judgement made late last month which has now been published, an MPTS panel considered that “whilst Dr Elwan’s posts had been found to be inappropriate, insensitive in their timing and in shockingly bad taste, they were nonetheless permitted as political free speech within the boundaries of Dr Elwan’s Article 10 rights, as they were not found to be grossly offensive or antisemitic.”…

Following Dr Elwan’s October 2023 comments, the Home Office attempted to remove her temporary right to remain in the UK, but Dr Elwan, an Egyptian who has lived in the country legally since 2016, challenged the decision and was backed by an immigration tribunal judge.….

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is yet another inexplicable decision by the MPTS, which is now plainly no longer fit for purpose. For a doctor to react to the murder of 1,200 Jews by a proscribed terrorist organisation by saying that none of them were civilians…is unfathomably abhorrent.

”How could Jewish people, or any vulnerable person, allow themselves to be put in her care? What, according to the MPTS, would a doctor need to say about Jewish people in order to be sanctioned? We will be examining legal options in relation to this decision. Profound reform to the medical regulatory system is desperately needed.”