UK Doctor Known for Antisemitic Posts Arrested After Violating Bail, Charged With Inviting Support for Hamas

A British Palestinian doctor based in the United Kingdom and known for antisemitic social media posts on Friday pleaded not guilty to inciting support for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group, and publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred.

Rahmeh Aladwan, 31, appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court in London, where she was released on bail. The doctor, who is part of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), will next appear at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey, in London on April 24.

The court appearance came one day after British law enforcement arrested Aladwan and slapped her with four counts of “inviting support for Hamas” and two counts of stirring up racial hatred through both spoken words and written material. The charges followed a series of statements and publications she allegedly made in support of Hamas and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

According to a statement from the Metropolitan Police, officers apprehended Aladwan at her residence in Pilning, South Gloucestershire, and transported her to a central London police station on the grounds that she had breached bail conditions “imposed following previous arrests.”

British law enforcement had arrested Aladwan on Oct. 21, charging her with four counts related to malicious communications and inciting racial hatred.

A group of demonstrators praised Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopedic surgeon, as she left the courthouse on Friday. One waved a Palestinian flag. Another wearing a keffiyeh held a protest sign while someone banged a drum and a voice yelled, “You’re a hero.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a British charity and watchdog group, noted that a social media account titled “GLOBALISE THE INTIFADA” called for the gathering, urging that “our sister Dr Aldwan needs our support” and “this is as serious as it gets.” The account features inverted red triangles to bookend its name, a symbol used by Hamas to mark Israeli targets to be attacked in its propaganda. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the symbol has been widely used by activists to express opposition to the Jewish state and support for the Palestinian terrorist group.

“It speaks volumes about pro-Palestine activists in Britain that they rush to the defense of those charged with supporting Hamas,” CAA said of the demonstration.

According to police, on July 21, 2025, on King Charles Street in London, Aladwan “used words that were threatening, abusive, or insulting intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances was reckless as to whether racial hatred would be stirred up,” a violation of the Public Order Act of 1986.

On Nov. 19, 2025, police allege that Aladwan “published or distributed written material that was threatening, abusive or insulting intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances was reckless as to whether racial hatred would be stirred up,” a violation of the same law.

Aladwan’s charges of inviting support for a proscribed terrorist organization range from summer through winter of last year, with her alleged crimes committed in July, August, October, and on New Year’s Eve.

The UK’s Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), which adjudicates on complaints made against doctors, in November suspended Aladwan from practicing medicine for 15 months in response to complaints filed by the CAA, finding that her words could have an “impact on patient confidence” and discourage people from seeking treatment from her.

Some of Aladwan’s antisemitic statements in the original CAA complaint against her included “Britain is totally occupied by Jewish supremacy” and “I will never condemn the 7th of October,” referring to Hamas’s 2023 invasion of and massacre across southern Israel. She also infamously labeled London’s Royal Free Hospital “a Jewish supremacy cesspit.”

In a July 6, 2025, posting on X, Aladwan clarified her position for those still confused about her activism’s mission, writing, “Let’s make this crystal clear: anti-Zionism means ‘Israel’ has no right to exist. No debates. No exceptions. ‘Israel’ is genocide. Its supporters are genocidal — and that includes over 90% of Jews on earth.”

Aladwan’s antisemitism has served as the iceberg’s tip in UK, signaling a lurking crisis in the country’s system of socialized medicine.

Last year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for an urgent review to accelerate regulators seeking to counter hateful medical practitioners. “There are just too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively,” he said at the time.

The results of the investigation came in this week. UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced their planned implementation through a series of reforms.

These challenges of antisemitism manifesting in medical settings have also shown up in South America, Australia, and across Europe.

In January, Argentina’s José de San Martín Hospital suspended Miqueas Martinez Secchi, a resident physician specializing in intensive care, after writing about Jews on X that “instead of performing circumcision, their carotid artery and main artery should be cut from side to side.”

In February, Australian nurses Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad Rashad Nadir pleaded not guilty after seizing international attention when a video of them threatening to kill Israeli patients went viral.

In the Netherlands last year, police investigated a nurse who threatened to deliver lethal injections to Israeli patients. In Belgium, a doctor listed “Jewish (Israeli)” as a medical problem when treating a 9-year-old. A Belgian-Israeli living in Amsterdam revealed that a nurse in Amsterdam denied her medical care after refusing to remove a pro-Palestine button.

Responding to Aladwan’s arrest, a CAA spokesperson said, “The cycle of repeatedly arresting Dr. Aladwan and her breaching her bail conditions and being re-arrested may finally be broken, as she now faces charges relating to terrorism and other offenses.”

“This is a doctor whose current interim suspension from practice was even in doubt, so pitiful is our healthcare regulation system, and who has been repeatedly arrested and faced effectively no penalty,” the spokesperson added. “This case will now be a real test of English justice, and whether it can be delivered for British Jews.”