A British-Palestinian plastic surgeon is facing a new legal challenge from the UK’s medical regulator over his work on Gaza.
Ghassan Abu Sittah was cleared of misconduct charges by the Medical Practitioner’s Tribunal in January but has since been informed that the General Medical Council will appeal against the decision to the High Court.
Criticising the latest legal move, Mr Abu Sittah said he believed the appeal was politically driven, and accused the British government of pressuring the GMC to again push for punishment.
“Under its current leadership, the GMC has been weaponised as a tool of political repression in the service of Israel’s genocidal project,” he wrote on social media.
“This will be the third legal action the GMC has brought against me, and I’m quite certain it is the result of political pressure from this Labour government,” he added.
Mr Abu Sittah gained prominence for his social media posts from a hospital in Gaza in the first weeks of the war in October 2023. He wrote about the injuries he was treating and the impact of the blockade.
He submitted his testimony to war crimes investigators upon his return and was elected rector of the University of Glasgow in March 2024.
His lawyers at Bindman’s say Mr Abu Sittah has faced “incessant legal harassment” since the charity UK Lawyers for Israel complained to the GMC about an article he had written in the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar.
Among the accusations was a catalogue of complaints to police, and allegations that he was not a qualified doctor. He was also accused of anti-Semitism and support for Hamas.
Mr Abu Sittah is a public campaigner who appears on stage at rallies and demonstrations on Gaza. He spoke at the end of January at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's London March for Palestine.
The UK government has sought to draw a distinguishing line between its foreign policy on Gaza and the wider Palestine solidarity movement that has marched throughout the UK – which the leadership criticises and has in some cases banned.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recognised the state of Palestine in September last year and spoke of his pride in the decision on Thursday. But he added there was an “insidious passive tolerance” of anti-Israel activism that needed to be resisted.
“I believe in British values. In rules that protect those in need. In the freedom to live and let live. In decency and tolerance. In respect for difference under the same flag. A common good,” he said during a visit to Hastings.
The appeal against Mr Abu Sittah comes amid public fallout over six Palestine Action activists who were cleared of aggravated burglary by a jury this week after they broke into Israeli-owned defence firm Elbit System's premises in the UK.
One of the defendants, Samuel Corner, was accused of hitting a policewoman with a sledgehammer, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of grievous bodily harm.
The Police Federation criticised Green Party leader Zack Polanski for celebrating the acquittal of the demonstrators. “Your comments risk sending a message that injury to police officers is acceptable consequence,” wrote general secretary Tiffany Lynch and local chairman Tom Gent.
“In none of your comments did you acknowledge that a police officer was seriously injured in the course of these events. You did not express concern for that officer’s welfare,” they added.
Palestine Action was banned by the UK in July last year, after some of its supporters broke into an RAF airbase and damaged two military planes using paint.
