Conservative, Jewish Groups Express Shock at Starmer’s Support for Anti-British Blogger

Conservative lawmakers in England are calling for the deportation of a thrice-jailed Egyptian-British blogger after Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed him home last week following a pardon by Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, under pressure from Mr. Starmer’s government.Alaa Abd El-Fattah was released in September from an Egyptian prison, where he was twice held in custody by the Sisi government on charges related to protesting the Egyptian government. However, the Cairo-born activist was banned from traveling abroad, including a November return to London to pick up the 2025 Magnitsky Human Rights Award for “Courage Under Fire.”Following a plea made on his behalf by Mr. Starmer and others, Mr. Sisi last week lifted the ban on travel and gave him a full pardon. “I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief,” Mr. Starmer wrote in an X post on Friday. “I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment. Alaa’s case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office.”“I strongly welcome the news that Alaa Abd El-Fattah has received a Presidential pardon,” added Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.Mr. Starmer’s enthusiastic welcome home shocked the senses of Jewish and conservative groups. The U.K-based Jewish Leadership Council said it was “appalled by the effusive welcome” offered by the British government for a man known for his anti-British writings. “The government has celebrated Mr Abd El-Fattah’s arrival as a victory, British Jews will see it as yet another reminder of the danger we face,” the council posted.Having gained fame during the Arab Spring protests in 2011, Mr. Fattah has a large following on social media, where he has been vocal in his calls for death to Egyptian and Israeli authorities, Israeli civilians, U.S. soldiers, and others. He has called Brits “dogs” and urged his supporters to burn down 10 Downing Street.“I rejoice when US soldiers are killed and support killing Zionists even civilians,” he wrote in 2010.“Police are not human. They don’t have rights. We should just kill them all,” he posted in 2011.Despite Britain’s strict Online Safety Act, which permits the arrest of individuals who use hate speech online, Mr. Starmer and others, including Hostage Aid Worldwide, view Mr. Fattah as a dissident and political prisoner. In September, more than 50 European lawmakers nominated Mr. Fattah for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.After being made aware of Mr. Fattah’s past posts, Britain’s Foreign Office said it considered them “abhorrent” and claimed that Mr. Starmer did not know the history. In response, Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick an wrote an op-ed for the Daily Mail saying Mr. Starmer’s advocacy was either “staggering negligence” or “worse” — full knowledge of Mr. Fattah’s violent positions. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he had reported Mr. Fattah to the counter-terrorism police. The return of Mr. Fattah has reignited questions of British citizenship, a simmering issue as the United Kingdom deals with a large influx of Muslim immigrants. “I have no moral difficulty in stripping British citizenship from vile individuals like Alaa Abd el-Fattah,” added Parliamentarian Rupert Lowe, an independent. “Being a ‘British’ citizen does not make you British. It just doesn’t. It takes so much more than that,” he continued.“The country needs to have a really honest, and a really uncomfortable, conversation about citizenship.”

Conservative, Jewish Groups Express Shock at Starmer’s Support for Anti-British Blogger

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