Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, 31, who specialises in trauma and orthopaedics, attended the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester on Thursday, where she is facing allegations of praising Hamas and making inflammatory social media posts following the October 7 attacks.
About 40 of her supporters filled the public gallery as proceedings began. The General Medical Council (GMC) has re-referred her case to the tribunal after claiming new evidence has emerged, despite Aladwan being cleared of similar allegations last month.
A previous hearing found that her social media posts including calling Israelis “worse than Nazis”, referring to London’s Royal Free Hospital as a “Jewish supremacy cesspit”, and describing the Holocaust as a “concept” did not amount to bullying or harassment.
However, the GMC said it was obliged to reopen the case to “protect the public or public confidence in doctors during an investigation.”
Representing Aladwan, barrister Kevin Saunders accused the GMC of a “brazen attempt to re-litigate” the matter until it secured a different outcome. He also criticised Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who had publicly condemned the earlier tribunal’s decision, accusing him of trying to “undermine the rule of law.”
Streeting said he stood by his criticism, stating: “I fail to see how medics using such language with impunity doesn’t undermine confidence in the medical profession. I have no confidence in the regulation system.”
The GMC’s counsel, Emma Gilsenan, said the new evidence suggested “a continuation or doubling down of concerning conduct,” alleging that Aladwan had displayed “enthusiastic support for proscribed terrorist groups.”
Ahead of the hearing, Aladwan posted on social media claiming she was being targeted for her views. “In 12 hours the GMC will try to destroy my career and livelihood to please its masters in the ‘Israeli’ lobby,” she wrote, adding that she was being “persecuted for speech.”
The tribunal refused an application by Saunders to have the case dismissed as an “abuse of process”, and the hearing was adjourned.
Aladwan was also arrested this week on suspicion of inciting racial hatred and later released on bail. One charge reportedly relates to a social media post on October 7 that allegedly expressed support for Hamas’s attack on Israel.
