British Prime Minister welcomes Egyptian activist who calls for ‘killing Zionists’

Abd al-Fattah was one of the leaders of the “date revolution” that led to the overthrow of President Husni Mubarak in 2011. In 2014, he was sentenced to five years in prison for participating in an unauthorized demonstration. He was arrested again in 2019 and sentenced to another five years in prison in 2021. He went on hunger strikes several times.

“I’m delighted to say that Alaa Abd al-Fattah has returned to the UK and been reunited with those he loves. They are hugely relieved. I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, to everyone who fought to make this moment possible,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

However, representatives of the Conservatives and the Reform UK party condemned such an enthusiastic greeting. They recalled that in the past, the Egyptian oppositionist made calls for the killing of Zionists and British police.

“At a time when anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise, when the Jewish community feels threatened, when police officers are under such pressure, such a greeting is simply grotesque. The Prime Minister cannot act as an activist in his own right. He represents us all,” Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said.

As the British Daily Mail notes, most of the anti-Semitic statements were made by al-Fattah on social networks in 2010-2011 and subsequently deleted. “I consider killing colonialists, especially Zionists, heroic,” one reads. He also claimed that the Holocaust did not happen and called for the killing of police officers.