A prominent Palestinian activist and doctor, Ghasan Abu-Sittah, has been cleared of misconduct allegations by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in the UK. The case, brought by the General Medical Council (GMC), was dismissed after a three-day hearing in Manchester.
The allegations against Abu-Sittah, who is the rector of the University of Glasgow, related to a newspaper article he had written for a Lebanese publication and two social media posts. In the article, he had written about the “martyrdom” of Ahmad Naser Jarrar, who was believed to be a member of Hamas. The tribunal, however, found that the article expressed views critical of political elites in Palestine and did not contain anything that was anti-Semitic or supportive of terrorism or violence.
Similarly, the tribunal found that a tweet by Abu-Sittah congratulating “our brothers in Hamas and our comrades in the Popular Front” on the anniversary of their inception did not constitute material or moral aid to terrorism. The tribunal stated that the “ordinary reader” would see the tweet as a celebration of an anniversary and not as an endorsement of violence.
Abu-Sittah, who studied at the University of Glasgow and lives in London with his wife and three sons, had also been accused of supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in a second tweet. The tribunal, however, found that the tweet, which referred to “martyrs” in the PFLP, could not be seen as inciting or supporting violence or terrorism when read through the lens of an ordinary, reasonable Arabic reader.
The Kuwaiti-born medic said he had been “racially profiled as inherently violent” because he was a Palestinian and Arab, and accused the organisation UK Lawyers for Israel, which brought the matter to the attention of the GMC, of “trying to destroy my life.”
After the hearing, Abu-Sittah said, “My immediate thoughts are with my patients in Beirut, whom I was forced to leave in order to attend these proceedings. I have spent my entire medical career treating the victims of war and political violence. I was therefore deeply shocked to be accused of advocating violence. I do not, and have never, supported violence against civilians.”
The tribunal’s decision stands as a victory for Abu-Sittah and a blow to the broader “lawfare strategy” employed by groups like UK Lawyers for Israel, which the medic said aims to “instrumentalise the regulatory processes to intimidate, silence and exhaust those who speak out against injustice in Palestine.”
